




















^ ^ 












jy 



THE 



PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING 



OR, 



GLIMPSES AT THE PHYSIOLOGICAL LAWS 



INVOLVED IN THE 



REPRODUCTION AND IMPROVEMENT 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



BY 
S. L. "GOODALE, 

SECRETARY OF THE MAINE BOARE^gT'AdRfi 

1867 

f> BOSTON: 
CROSBY, NICHOLS, LEE AND COMPANY, 

117 Washington St. 

1861. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861 , 

By STEPHEN L. GOODALE, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Maine. 



Press of Stevens <fe Say ward, 
Augusta, Maine. 









^ x „ >,. 



I »EEFACE. 



The writer has had frequent occasion to notice the 
want of some handy book embodying" the principles 
necessary to be understood in order to secure improve- 
ment in Domestic Animals. 

It has been his aim to supply this want. 

In doing* so lie has availed himself freely of the 
knowledge supplied by others, the aim being to furnish 
a useful, rather than an original book. 

If it serve in any measure to supply the need, and 
to awaken greater interest upon a matter of vital im- 
portance to the agricultural interests of the country, 
the writer's purpose will be accomplished. 



CO^TE^TS. 



PAGE. 

Chapter I. — Introductory, T 

II. — Law of Similarity, 21 

III. — Law of Variation, 33 

IV. — Atavism or Ancestral Influence, . 61 

V. — Relative Influence of the Parents, 68 

VI. — Law of Sex, 89 



VII. — In-and-in Breeding, 

VIII. — Crossing, 

IX. — Breeding in the Line, 
X. — Characteristics of Breeds, 



. 94 
. 105 
. 119 
. 127 



THE 



PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



CHAPTER I. 

Introductory. 

The object of the husbandman, like that of men en- 
gaged in other avocations, is profit; and like other men 
the farmer may expect success proportionate to the 
skill, care, judgment and perseverance with which his 
operations are conducted. 

The better policy of farmers generally, is to make 
stock husbandry in some one or more of its departments 
a leading aim — that is to say, while they shape their 
operations according to the circumstances in which 
they are situated, these should steadily embrace the 
conversion of a large proportion of the crops grown 
into animal products, — and this because, by so doing, 
they may not only secure a present livelihood, but best 
maintain and increase the fertility of their lands. 

The object of the stock grower is to obtain the most 
valuable returns from his vegetable products. He 



8 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



needs, as Bakewell happily expressed it, " the best 
machine for converting herbage and other animal food 
into money. " 

He will therefore do well to seek such animals as are 
most perfect of their kind — such as will pay best for 
the expense of procuring the machinery, for the care 
and attention bestowed, and for the consumption of raw 
material. The returns come in various forms. They 
may or may not be connected with the ultimate value 
of the animal. In the beef ox and the mutton sheep, 
they are so connected to a large extent ; in the dairy 
cow and the fine wooled sheep, this is quite a secondary 
consideration ; — in the horse, valued as he is for beauty, 
speed and draught, it is not thought of at all. 

Not only is there a wide range of field for operations, 
from which the stock grower may select his own path of 
procedure, but there is a demand that his attention be 
directed with a definite aim, and towards an end clearly 
apprehended. The first question to be answered, is, 
what do we want? and the next, how shall we get it? 

What we want, depends wholly upon our situation 
and surroundings, and each must answer it for himself. 
In England the problem to be solved by the breeder of 
neat cattle and sheep is how " to produce an animal or 
a living machine which with a certain quantity and 
quality of food, and under certain given circumstances, 



INTRODUCTORY. 9 



shall yield in the shortest time the largest quantity and 
best quality of beef, mutton or milk, with the largest 
profit to the producer and at least cost to the con- 
sumer/ ' But this is not precisely the problem for 
American farmers to solve, because our circumstances 
are different. Few, if any, here grow oxen for beef 
alone, but for labor and beef, so that earliest possible 
maturity may be omitted and a year or more of labor 
profitably intervene before conversion to beef. Many 
cultivators of sheep, too, are so situated as to prefer 
fine wool, which is incompatible with the largest quan- 
tity and best quality of meat. Others differently situ- 
ated in regard to a meat market would do well to follow 
the English practice and aim at the most profitable 
production of mutton. A great many farmers, not only 
of those in the vicinity of large towns, but of those at 
some distance, might, beyond doubt, cultivate dairy 
qualities in cows, to great advantage, and this too, 
even, if necessary, at the sacrifice, to considerable ex- 
tent, of beef making qualities. As a general thing 
dairy qualities have been sadly neglected in years past. 
Whatever may be the object in view, it should be 
clearly apprehended, and striven for with persistent and 
well directed efforts. To buy or breed common animals 
of mixed qualities and use them for any and for all pur- 
poses is too much like a manufacturer of cloth pro- 



10 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



curing some carding, spinning and weaving machinery, 
adapted to no particular purpose but which can some- 
how be used for any, and attempting to make fabrics 
of cotton, of wool, and of linen with it. I do not say 
that cloth would not be produced, but he would assur- 
edly be slow in getting rich by it. 

The stock grower needs not only to have a clear and 
definite aim in view, but also to understand the means 
by which it may best be accomplished. Among these 
means a knowledge of the principles of breeding holds 
a prominent place, and this is not of very easy acquisi- 
tion by the mass of farmers. The experience of any 
one man would go but a little way towards acquiring 
it, and there has not been much published on the sub- 
ject in any form within the reach of most. I have been 
able to find nothing like an extended systematic treatise 
on the subject, either among our own or the foreign 
agricultural literature which has come within my no- 
tice. Indeed, from the scantiness of what appears to 
have been written, coupled with the fact that much 
knowledge must exist somewhere, one is tempted to 
believe that not all which might have done so, has yet 
found its way to printers' ink. That a great deal has 
been acquired, we know, as we know a tree — by its- 
fruits. That immense achievements have been accom- 
plished is beyond doubt. 



INTRODUCTORY. H 



The improvement of the domestic animals of a coun- 
try so as greatly to enhance their individual and aggre- 
gate value, and to render the rearing of them more 
profitable to all concerned, is surely one of the achieve- 
ments of advanced civilization and enlightenment, and 
is as much a triumph of science and skill as the con- 
struction of a railroad, a steamship, an electric tele- 
graph, or any work of architecture. If any doubt this, 
let them ponder the history of those breeds of animals 
which have made England the stock nursery of the 
world, the perfection of which enables her to export 
thousands of animals at prices almost fabulously beyond 
their value for any purpose but to propagate their kind ; 
let them note the patient industry, the genius and ap- 
plication which have been put forth to bring them to 
the condition they have attained, and their doubts must 
cease. 

Eobert Bakewell of Dishley, was one of the first of 

these improvers. Let us stop for a moment's glance 

at him. Born in 1125, on the farm where his father 

and grandfather had been tenants, he began at the age 

of thirty to carry out the plans for the improvement of 

domestic animals upon which he had resolved as the 

result of long and patient study and reflection. He 

was a man of genius, energy and perseverance. With 

sagacity to conceive and fortitude to perfect his designs, 
2* 



12 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



he laid his plans and struggled against many disap- 
pointments, amid the ridicule and predictions of failure 
freely bestowed by his neighbors, — often against serious 
pecuniary embarrassments ; and at last was crowned by 
a wonderful degree of success. When he commenced 
letting his rams, (a system first introduced by him and 
adhered to during his life, in place of selling,) they 
brought him ITs. 6d. each, for the season. This was 
ten years after he commenced his improvements. Soon 
the price came to a guinea, then to two or three guin- 
eas — rapidly increasing with the reputation of his stock, 
until in 1784, they brought him 100 guineas each ! 
Five years later his lettings for one season amounted 
to $30,000 ! 

With all his skill and success he seemed afraid lest 
others might profit by the knowledge he had so labori- 
ously acquired. He put no pen to paper and at death 
left not even the slightest memorandum throwing light 
upon his operations, and it is chiefly through his cotem- 
poraries, who gathered somewhat from verbal commu- 
nications, that we know anything regarding them. 
From these we learn that he formed an ideal standard 
in his own mind and then endeavored, first by a wide 
selection and a judicious and discriminating coupling, 
to obtain the type desired, and then by close breeding, 
connected witli rigorous weeding out, to perpetuate 
and fix it. 



INTRODUCTORY. 13 



After him came a host of others, not all of whom 

concealed their light beneath a bushel. By long con- 
tinued and extensive observation, resulting in the 
collection of numerous facts, and by the collation of 
these facts of nature, by scientific research and practi- 
cal experiments, certain physiological laws have been 
discovered, and principles of breeding have been de- 
duced and established. It is true that some of these 
laws are as yet hidden from us, and much regarding 
them is but imperfectly understood. What we do not 
know is a deal more than what we do know, but to 
ignore so much as has been discovered, and is well 
established, and can be learned by any who care to do 
so, and to go on regardless of it, would indicate a 
degree of wisdom in the breeder on a par with that of 
a builder who should fasten together wood and iron 
just as the pieces, happened to come to his hand, re- 
gardless of the laws of architecture, and expect a con- 
venient house or a fast sailing ship to be the result of 
his labors. 

Is not the usual course of procedure among many 
farmers too nearly parallel to the case supposed? Let 
the ill-favored, chance-bred, mongrel beasts in their 
barn yards testify. The truth is, and it is of no use to 
deny or disguise the fact, the improvement of domestic 
animals is one of the most important and to a large 



14 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING, 



extent, one of the most neglected branches of rural 
economy. The fault is not that farmers do not keep 
stock enough, much oftener they keep more than they 
can feed to the most profitable point, and when a short 
crop of hay comes, there is serious difficulty in sup- 
porting them, or in selling them at a paying price ; but 
the great majority neither bestow proper care upon the 
selection of animals for breeding, nor do they appre- 
ciate the dollars and cents difference between such as 
are profitable and such as are profitless. How many 
will hesitate or refuse to pay a dollar for the services of 
a good bull when some sort of a calf can be begotten for 
a " quarter V } and this too when one by the good male 
would be worth a dollar more for veal and ten or twenty 
dollars more when grown to a cow or an ox ? How 
few will hesitate or refuse to allow to a butcher the cull 
of his calves and lambs for a few extra shillings, and 
this when the butcher's difference in shillings would 
soon, were the best kept and the worst sold, grow into 
as many dollars and more ? How many there are who 
esteem size to be of more consequence than symmetry, 
or adaptation to the use for which they are kept? 
How many ever sit down to calculate the difference in 
money value between an animal which barely pays for 
keeping, or perhaps not that, and one which pays a 
profit ? 



INTRODUCTORY. J 5 



Let us reckon a little. Suppose a man wishes to buy 
a cow. Two are offered him, both four years old, and 
which might probably be serviceable for ten years to 
come. With the same food and attendance the first 
will yield for ten months in the year, an average of 
five quarts per day, — and the other for the same term 
will yield seven quarts and of equal quality. What 
is the comparative value of each ? The difference in 
yield is six hundred quarts per annum. For the pur- 
pose of this calculation we will suppose it worth three 
cents per quart — amounting to eighteen dollars. Is 
not the second cow, while she holds out to give it, as 
good as the first, and three hundred dollars at interest 
besides ? If the first just pays for her food and attend- 
ance, the second, yielding two-fifths more, pa}^s forty 
per cent, profit annually ; and yet how many farmers 
having two such cows for sale would make more than 
ten, or twenty, or at most, thirty dollars difference in 
the price ? The profit from one is eighteen dollars a 
year — in ten years one hundred and eighty dollars, 
besides the annual accumulations of interest — the profit 
of the other is — nothing. If the seller has need to keep 
one, would he not be wiser to give away the first, than 
to part with the second for a hundred dollars ? 

Suppose again, that an acre of grass or a ton of ha3 r 
costs five dollars, and that for its consumption by a 



16 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 






given set of animals, the farmer gets a return of five 
dollars worth of labor, or meat, or wool, or milk. He 
is selling his crop at cost, and makes no profit. Sup- 
pose by employing other animals, better horses, better 
cows, oxen and sheep, he can get ten dollars per ton 
in returns. How much are the latter worth more than 
the former ? Have they not doubled the value of the 
crops, and increased the profit of farming from nothing 
to a hundred per cent ? Except that the manure is 
not doubled, and the animals would some day need to 
be replaced, could he not as well afford to give the 
price of his farm for one set as to accept the other as a 

gift? 

Among many, who are in fact ignorant of what goes 
to constitute merit in a breeding animal, there is an 
inclination to treat as imaginary and unreal the higher 
values placed upon well-bred animals over those of 
mixed origin, unless they are larger and handsomer in 
proportion to the price demanded. The sums paid for 
qualities which are not at once apparent to the eye are 
stigmatized as fancy prices. It is not denied that fancy 
prices are sometimes, perhaps often paid, for there are 
probably few who are not willing occasionally to pay 
dearly for what merely pleases them, aside from any 
other merit commensurate to the price. 

But, on the other hand, it is fully as true that great 



INTRODUCTORY. \*J 



intrinsic value for breeding purposes may exist in an 
animal and yet make very little show. Such an one 
may not even look so well to a casual observer, as a 
grade, or cross-bred animal, which although valuable 
as an individual, is not, for breeding purposes, worth a 
tenth part as much. 

Let us suppose two farmers to need a bull ; they go 
to seek and two are offered, both two years old, of 
similar color, form and general appearance. One is 
offered for twenty dollars — for the other a hundred is 
demanded. Satisfactory evidence is offered that the 
latter is no better than any or all of its ancestors for 
many generations back on both sides, or than its kin- 
dred — that it is of a pure and distinct breed, that it 
possesses certain well known hereditary qualities, that 
it is suited for a definite purpose, it may be a Short- 
horn, noted for large size and early maturity, it maybe 
a Devon, of fine color and symmetry, active and hardy, 
it may be an Ayrshire, noted for dairy qualities, or of 
some other definite breed, whose uses, excellencies 
and deficiencies are all well known. 

The other is of no breed whatever, perhaps it is 
called a grade or a cross. The man who bred it had 
rather confused ideas, so far as he had any, about 
breeding, and thought to combine all sorts of good 
qualities in one animal, and so he worked in a little 



18 



PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



grade Durham, or Hereford to get size, and a little Ayr- 
shire for milk, and a little Devon for color, and so on, 
using perhaps dams sired by a bull in the neighborhood 
which had also got some " Whitten"* or "Peter 
Waldo" calves, (though none of these showed it,) at 
any rate he wanted some of the "native" element in 
his stock, because it was tough, and some folks thought 
natives were the best after all. Among its ancestors 
and kindred were some good and some not good, some 
large and some small, some well favored and fat, some 
ill favored and lean, some profitable and some profitless. 
The animal now offered is a great deal better than the 
average of them. It looks for aught they can see, about 
as well as the one for which five times his price is 
asked. Perhaps he served forty cows last year and 
brought his owner as many quarters, while the other 
only served five and brought an income of but five dol- 
lars. The question arises, which is the better bargain? 
After pondering the matter, one buys the low-priced 
and the other the high-priced one, both being well sat- 
isfied in their own minds. 

What did results show ? The low-priced one served 
that season perhaps a hundred cows ; more than ought 
to have done so, came a second time ; — having been 
overtasked as a yearling, he lacked somewhat of vigor. 

* Local names for lyery^ or black fleshed cattle. 



INTRODUCTORY. 19 



The calves came of all sorts, some good, some poor, a 
few like the sire, more like the dams — all mongrels and 
showing mongrel origin more than he did. There 
seemed in many of them a tendency to combine the 
defects of the grades from which he sprung rather than 
their good points. In some, the quietness of the Short- 
horn degenerated into stupidity, and in others the 
activity of the Devon into nervous viciousness. Take 
them together they perhaps paid for rearing, or nearly 
so. After using him another year, he was killed, hav- 
ing been used long enough. 

The other, we will say, served that same season a 
reasonable number, perhaps four to six in a week, or 
one every day, not more. Few came a second time 
and those for no fault of his. The calves bear a striking 
resemblance to the sire. Some from the better cows 
look even better in some points, than himself and few 
much worse. There is a remarkable uniformity among 
them ; as they grow up they thrive better than those 
by the low priced one. They prove better adapted to 
the use intended. On the whole they are quite satis- 
factory and each pays annually in its growth, labor 
or milk a profit over the cost of food and attendance of 
five or ten dollars or more. If worked enough to fur- 
nish the exercise needful to insure vigorous health, he 
may be as serviceable and as manageable at eight or 



20 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



ten years old, as at two ; meantime he has got, per- 
haps, five hundred calves, which in due time become 
worth ten or twenty dollars each more than those from 
the other. Which now seems the wiser purchase ? 
Was the higher estimate placed on the well bred ani- 
mal based upon fancy or upon intrinsic value ? 

The conviction that a better knowledge of the prin- 
ciples of breeding would render our system of agricul- 
ture more profitable, and the hope of contributing 
somewhat to this end, have induced the attempt to set 
forth some of the physiological principles involved in 
the reproduction of domestic animals, or in other 
words, the laws which govern hereditary transmission. 



LAW OF SIMILARITY. 21 



CHAPTER II. 

The Law of Similarity. 

The first and most important of the laws to be con- 
sidered in this connection is that of Similarity. It is 
by virtue of this law that the peculiar characters, qual- 
ities and properties of the parents, whether external 
or internal, good or bad, healthy or diseased, are trans- 
mitted to their offspring. This is one of the plainest 
and most certain of the laws of nature. Children 
resemble their parents, and they do so because these 
are hereditary. The law is constant. Within certain 
limits progeny always and every where resemble their 
parents. If this were not so, there would be no con- 
stancy of species, and a horse might beget a calf or a 
sow have a litter of puppies, which is never the case, — 
for in all time we find repeated in the offspring the 
structure, the instincts and all the general character- 
istics of the parents, and never those of another species. 
Such is the law of nature and hence the axiom that 
"like produces like. " But while experience teaches 
the constancy of hereditary transmission, it teaches 
just as plainly that the constancy is not absolute and 



22 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



perfect, and this introduces us to another law, viz : 
that of variation, which will be considered by and by ; 
our present concern is to ascertain what we can of the 
law of similarity. 

The lesson which this law teaches might be stated in 
five words, to wit : Breed only from the best — but the 
teaching may be more impressive, and will more likely 
be heeded, if we understand the extent and scope of the 
law. 

Pacts in abundance show the hereditary tendency of 
physical, mental and moral qualities in men, and very 
few would hesitate to admit that the external form and 
general characteristics of parents descend to children 
in both the human and brute races ; but not all are 
aware that this law reaches to such minute particulars 
as facts show to be the case. 

We see hereditary transmission of a peculiar type 
upon an extensive scale, in some of the distinct races, 
the Jews, and the Gypsies, for example. Although 
exposed for centuries to the modifying influences of 
diverse climates, to association with peoples of widely 
differing customs and habits, they never merge their 
peculiarities in those of any people with whom they 
dwell, but continue distinct. They retain the same 
features, the same figures, the same manners, customs 
and habits. The Jew in Poland, in Austria, in London, 



LAW OF SIMILARITY. 23 



or in Xew York, is the same ; and the money-changers 
of the Temple at Jerusalem in the time of our Lord 
may be seen to-day on change in any of the larger 
marts of trade. How is this ? Just because the Jew 
is a " thorough-bred. ;; There is with him no intermar- 
riage with the Gentile — no crossing, no mingling of his 
organization with that of another. When this ensues 
"permanence of race 77 will cease and give place to 
variations of any or of all sorts. 

Some families are remarkable during long periods 
for tall and handsome figures and striking regularity of 
features, while in others a less perfect form, or some 
peculiar deformity reappears with equal constancy. A 
family in Yorkshire is known for several generations to 
have been furnished with six fingers and toes. A family 
possessing the same peculiarity resides in the valley of 
the Kennebec, and the same has reappeared in one or 
more other families connected with it by marriage. 

The thick upper lip of the imperial house of Austria, 
introduced by the marriage of the Emperor Maximillian 
with Mary of Burgundy, has been a marked feature in 
that family for hundreds of years, and is visible in their 
descendants to this day. Equally noticeable is the 
"Bourbon nose" in the former reigning family of 
France. All the Barons de Yessins had a peculiar 
mark between their shoulders, and it is said that by 



24 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



means of it a posthumous son of a late Baron de Ves- 
sins was discovered in a London shoemaker's appren- 
tice. Haller cites the case of a family where an exter- 
nal tumor was transmitted from father to son which 
always swelled when the atmosphere was moist. 

A remarkable example of a singular organic peculiar- 
ity and of its transmission to descendants, is furnished 
in the case of the English family of "Porcupine men," 
so called from having all the body except the head and 
face, and the soles and palms, covered with hard dark- 
colored excrescences of a horny nature. The first of 
these was Edward Lambert, born in Suffolk in 1118, 
and exhibited before the Eoyal Society when fourteen 
years of age. The other children of his parents were 
naturally formed ; and Edward, aside from this peculi- 
arity, was good looking and enjoyed good health. He 
afterward had six children, all of whom inherited the 
same formation, as did also several grand-children. 

Numerous instances are on record tending to show 
that even accidents do sometimes, although not usually, 
become hereditary. Blumenbach mentions the case of 
a man whose little finger was crushed and twisted by 
an accident to his right hand. His sons inherited 
right hands with the little finger distorted. A bitch 
had her hinder parts paralyzed for some days by a blow. 
Six of her seven pups were deformed, or so weak in 



LAW OF SIMILARITY. 25 



their hinder parts that they were drowned as useless. 
A pregnant cat got her tail injured ; in each of her five 
kittens the tail was distorted, and had an enlargement 
or knob near the end of each. Horses marked during 
successive generations with red-hot irons in the same 
place, transmit visible traces of such marks to their 
colts. 

Very curious are the facts which go to show that 
acquired habits sometimes become hereditary. Pritch- 
ard, in his " Natural History of Man," says that the 
horses bred on the table lands of the Cordilleras " are 
carefully taught a peculiar pace which is a sort of 
running amble ; ;? that after a few generations this 
pace becomes a natural one ; young untrained horses 
adopting it without compulsion. But a still more 
curious fact is, that if these domesticated stallions breed 
with mares of the wild herd, which abound in the sur- 
rounding plains, they "become the sires of a race in 
which the ambling pace is natural and requires no 
teaching." 

Mr. T. A. Knight, in a paper read before the Eoyal 
Society, says, "the hereditary propensities of the off- 
spring of Norwegian ponies, whether full or half-bred, 
are very singular. Their ancestors have been in the 
habit of obeying the voice of their riders and not the bri- 
dle ; and horse-breakers complain that it is impossible 



26 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



to produce this last habit in the young colts. They 
are, however, exceedingly docile and obedient when 
they understand the commands of their masters." 

A late writer in one of the foreign journals, says that 
he had a "pup taken from its mother at six weeks old, 
who although never taught to 'beg' (an accomplish- 
ment his mother had been taught) spontaneously took 
to begging for every thing he wanted when about 
seven or eight months old ; he would beg for food, beg 
to be let out of the room, and one day was found oppo- 
site a rabbit hutch apparently begging the rabbits to 
come and play." 

If even in such minute particulars as these, heredi- 
tary transmission may be distinctly seen, it becomes the 
breeder to look closely to the "like" which he wishes 
to see reproduced. Judicious selection is indispensa- 
ble to success in breeding, and this should have regard 
to every particular — general appearance, length of 
limb, shape of carcass, development of chest ; if in cat- 
tle, the size, shape and position of udder, thickness of 
skin, "touch," length and texture of hair, docility, &c, 
&c. ; if in horses, their adaptation to any special excel- 
lence depending on form, or temperament, or nervous 
energy. 

Not only should care be taken to avoid structural 
defects, but especially to secure freedom from hereditary 



LAW OF SIMILARITY. 27 



diseases, as both defects and diseases appear to be more 
easily transmissible than desirable qualities. There is 
often no obvious peculiarity of structure, or appearance, 
indicating the possession of diseases or defects which 
are transmissible, and so, special care and continued 
acquaintance are necessary in order to be assured of 
their absence in breeding animals ; but such a tendency 
although invisible or inappreciable to cursory observa- 
tion, must still, judging from its effects, have as real 
and certain an existence, as any peculiarity of form or 
color. 

Every one who believes that a disease may be hered- 
itary at all, must admit that certain individuals possess 
certain tendencies which render them especially liable 
to certain diseases, as consumption or scrofula ; yet it 
is not easy to say precisely in what this predisposition 
consists. It seems probable, however, that it may be 
due either to some want of harmony between different 
organs, some faulty formation or combination of parts, 
or to some peculiar physical or chemical condition of 
the blood or tissues ; and that this altered state, con- 
stituting the inherent congenital tendency to the dis- 
ease, is duly transmitted from parent to offspring like 
any other quality more readily apparent to observa- 
tion. 

Hereditary diseases exhibit certain eminently charac- 



28 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



teristic phenomena, which a late writer* enumerates as 
follows : 

1. "They are transmitted by the male as well as by 
the female parent, and are doubly severe in the offspring 
of parents both of which are affected by them. 

2. They develop themselves not only in the immedi- 
ate progeny of one affected by them, but also in many 
subsequent generations. 

3. They do not, however, always appear in each gen- 
eration in the same form ; one disease is sometimes 
substituted for another, analogous to it, and this again 
after some generations becomes changed into that to 
which the breed was originally liable — as phthisis (con- 
sumption) and dysentery. Thus, a stock of cattle pre- 
viously subject to phthisis, sometimes become affected 
for several generations with dysentery to the exclusion 
of phthisis, but by and by, dysentery disappears to give 
place to phthisis. 

4. Hereditary diseases occur to a certain extent inde- 
pendently of external circumstances ; appearing under 
all sorts of management, and being little affected by 
changes of locality, separation from diseased stock, or 
such causes as modify the production of non-hereditary 
diseases. 

5. They are, however, most certainly and speedily 
developed in circumstances inimical to general good 
health, and often occur at certain, so called, critical 
periods of life, when unusual demands on the vital 
powers take place. 

* Finlay Dun, V. S., in Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society. 



LAW OF SIMILARITY. 29 



6. They show a striking tendency to modify and 
absorb into themselves all extraneous diseases ; for 
example, in an animal of consumptive constitution, 
pneumonia seldom runs its ordinary course, and when 
arrested, often passes into consumption. 

7. Hereditary diseases are less effectually treated by 
ordinary remedies than other diseases. Thus, although 
an attack of phthisis, rheumatism or opthalmia may be 
subdued, and the patient put out of pain and danger, 
the tendency to the disease will still remain and be 
greatly aggravated by each attack. 

In horses and neat cattle, hereditary diseases do not 
usually show themselves at birth, and sometimes the ten- 
dency remains latent for many years, perhaps through 
one or two generations and afterwards breaks out with 
all its former severity." 

The diseases which are found to be hereditary in 
horses are scrofula, rheumatism, rickets, chronic cough, 
roaring, ophthalmia or inflammation of the eye, — grease 
or scratches, bone spavin, curb, &c. Indeed, Youatt 
says, " there is scarcely a malady to which the horse 
is subject, that is not hereditary. Contracted feet, curb, 
spavin, roaring, thick wind, blindness, notoriously de- 
scend from the sire or dam to the foal." 

The diseases which are found hereditary in neat 
cattle are scrofula, consumption, dysentery, diarrhea, 
rheumatism and malignant tumors. Neat cattle being 
less exposed to the exciting causes of disease, and less 






80 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING, 



liable to be overtasked or exposed to violent changes 
of temperature j or otherwise put in jeopardy, their dis- 
eases are not so numerous, and what they have are less 
violent than in the horse, and generally of a chronic 
character. 

Scrofula is not uncommon among sheep, and it pre- 
sents itself in various forms. Sometimes it is con- 
nected with consumption ; sometimes it affects the 
viscera oi' the abdomen, and particularly the mesen- 
teric glands in a manner similar to consumption in the 
lungs. The scrofulous taint has been known to be so 

strong as \o affect the foetus, and lambs have occasion- 
ally been born with it, but much oftener they show it 
at an early age, and any affected in this way are liable 
io tall an easy prey to any ordinary or prevailing disease 
which develops in such with unusual severity. Sheep 
are also liable to several diseases of the brain and of the 
respiratory and digestive organs. Epilepsy, or "tits," 
and rheumatism sometimes occur. 

Swine Eire subject to nearly the same hereditary dis- 
eases as sheep. Epilepsy is more common with them 

than with the latter, ami they are more liable to scrofula 
than any other domestic animals. 

When properly and carefully managed, swine are not 
ordinarily very liable to disease, but when, as too often 
kept in small, damp, filthy styes, and obliged constantly 



LAW OF SIMILARITY. 31 



to inhale noxious effluvia, and to eat unsuitable food, 
we cannot wonder either that they become victims of 
disease or transmit to their progeny a weak and sickly 
organization. Swine are not naturally the dirty beasts 
which many suppose. "Wallowing in the mire," so 
proverbial of them, is rather from a wish for protection 
from insects and for coolness, than from any inherent 
love of filth, and if well cared for they will be compara- 
tively cleanly. 

The practice of close breeding, which is probably 
carried to greater extent with swine than with any 
other domestic animal, undoubtedly contributes to their 
liability to hereditary diseases, and when those possess- 
ing any such diseases are coupled, the ruin of the stock 
is easily and quickly effected, for as already stated, 
they are propagated by either parent, and always most 
certainly and in most aggravated form, when occurring 
in both. 

With regard to hereditary diseases, it is eminently 
true that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of 
cure." As a general and almost invariable rule, ani- 
mals possessing either defects or a tendency to disease 
should not be employed for breeding. If, however, for 
special reasons it seems desirable to breed from one 
which has some slight defect of symmetry, or a faint 
tendency to disease, although for the latter it is doubtful 



32 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



if the possession of any good qualities can fully com- 
pensate, it should be mated with one which excels in 
every respect in which the other is deficient, and on no 
account with one which is near of kin to it. 

Notwithstanding the importance due to the subject 
of hereditary diseases, it is also true that few diseases 
invariably owe their development to hereditary causes. 
Even such as are usually hereditary are sometimes pro-' 
duced accidentally, (as of course there must be a begin- 
ning to everything,) and in such case, they may, or may 
not be, transmitted to their progeny. As before shown, 
it is certain that they sometimes are, which is sufficient 
reason to avoid such for breeding purposes. It is also 
well known that, in the horse, for instance, certain forms 
of limbs predispose to certain diseases, as bone spavin 
is most commonly seen where there is a disproportion 
in the size of the limb above and below the hock, and 
others might be named of similar character ; in all such 
cases the disease may be caused by an agency which 
would be wholly inadequate in one of more perfect form, 
but once existing, it is liable to be reproduced in the 
offspring — all tending to show the great importance of 
giving due heed in selecting breeding animals to all qual- 
ities, both external and internal, so long as "like pro- 
duces like." 



LAW OF VARIATION. 33 



CHAPTER III. 

The Law of Variation. 

We come now to consider another law, by which 
that of similarity is greatly modified, to wit, the law of 
variation or divergence. All organic beings, whether 
plants or animals, possess a certain flexibility or pliancy 
of organization, rendering them capable of change to a 
greater or less extent. When in a state of nature vari- 
ations are comparatively slow and infrequent, but when 
in a state of domestication they occur much oftener and 
to a much greater extent. The greater variability in 
the latter case is doubtless owing, in some measure, to 
our domestic productions being reared under conditions 
of life not so uniform, and different from, those to which 
the parent species was exposed in a state of nature. 

Flexibility of organization in connexion with climate, 
is seen in a remarkable degree in Indian corn. The 
small Canada variety, growing only three feet high and 
ripening in seventy to ninety days when carried south- 
ward, gradually enlarges in the whole plant until it 
may be grown twelve feet high and upwards, and re- 
quires one hundred and fifty days to ripen its seed. A 



34 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



southern variety brought northward, gradually dwindles 
in size and ripens earlier until it reaches a type special- 
ly fitted to its latitude. 

Variation, although the same in kind, is greater in 
degree, among domesticated plants than among ani- 
mals. From the single wild variety of the potato as 
first discovered and taken to Europe, have sprung 
innumerable sorts. Kemp, in his work on Agricultural 
Physiology, tells us, that on the maratime cliffs of 
England, there exists a little plant with a fusiform root, 
smooth glaucous leaves, flowers similar to wild mus- 
tard and of a saline taste. It is called by botanists, 
Brassica oleracea. By cultivation there have been 
obtained from this insignificant and apparently useless 
plant — 

1st, all borecoles or kails, 12 varieties or more. 

2d, all cabbages having heart. 

3d, the various kinds of Savoy cabbages. 

4th, Brussels sprouts. 

5th, all the broccolis and cauliflowers which do not 
heart. 

6th, the rape plant. 

7th, the ruta baga or Swedish turnip. 

8th, yellow and white turnips. 

9th, hybrid turnips. 

10th, kohl rabbi. 



LAW OF VARIATION. 35 



Similar examples are numerous among our common 
useful plants, and among flowers the dahlia and ver- 
bena furnish an illustration of countless varieties, 
embracing numberless hues and combinations of color, 
from purest white through nearly all the tints of the 
rainbow to almost black, of divers hights too, and 
habits of growth, springing up under the hand of culti- 
vation in a few years from plants which at first yielded 
only a comparatively unattractive and self-colored 
flower. In brief, it may be said, that nearly or quite 
all the choicest productions both of our kitchen and 
flower gardens are due to variations induced by cul- 
tivation in a course of years from plants which in their 
natural condition would scarcely attract a passing 
glance. 

We cannot say what might have been the original 
type of many of our domestic animals, for the inquiry 
would carry us beyond any record of history or tra- 
dition regarding it, but few doubt that all our varieties 
of the horse, the ox, the sheep and the dog, sprang 
each originally from a single type, and that the count- 
less variations are due to causes connected with their 
domestication. Of those reclaimed within the period 
of memory may be named the turkey. This was un- 
known to the inhabitants of the old continent until 

discovered here in a wild state. Since then, having 

4* 



36 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



been domesticated and widely disseminated, it now 
offers varieties of wide departure from the original 
type, and which have been nurtured into self-sustain- 
ing breeds, distinguished from each other by the pos- 
session of peculiar characteristics. 

Among what are usually reckoned the more active 
causes of variation may be named climate, food and 
habit. 

Animals in cold climates are provided with a thicker 
covering of hair than in warmer ones. Indeed, it is 
said that in some of the tropical provinces of South 
America, there are cattle which have an extremely 
rare and fine fur in place of the ordinary pile of hair. 
Various other instances could be cited, if necessary, 
going to show that a beneficent Creator has implanted 
in many animals, to a certain extent, a power of accom- 
modation to the circumstances and conditions amid 
which they are reared. 

The supply of food , whether abundant or scanty, is 
one of the most active cases of variation known to be 
within the control of man. For illustration of its 
effect, let us suppose two pairs of twin calves, as nearly 
alike as possible, and let a male and a female from 
each pair be suckled by their mothers until they wean 
themselves, and be fed always after with plenty of the 
most nourishing food ; and the others to be fed with 



LAW OF VARIATION. 37 



skimmed milk, hay tea and gruel at first, to be put to 
grass at two months old, and subsequently fed on 
coarse and innutritions fodder. Let these be bred from 
separately, and the same style of treatment kept up, 
and not many generations would elapse before we had 
distinct varieties, or breeds, differing materially in size, 
temperament and time of coming to maturity. 

Suppose other similar pairs, and one from each to be 
placed in the richest blue-grass pastures of Kentucky, 
or in the fertile valley of the Tees ; always supplied 
with abundance of rich food, these live luxuriously, 
grow rapidly, increase in hight, bulk, thickness, every 
way, they early reach the full size which they are capa- 
ble of attaining ; having nothing to induce exertion, 
they become inactive, lazy, lethargic and fat. Being 
bred from, the progeny resemble the parents, "only 
more so." Each generation acquiring more firmly and 
fixedly the characteristics induced by their situation, 
these become hereditary, and we by and by have a breed 
exhibiting somewhat of the traits of the Teeswater or 
Durhams from which the improved Short-horns of the 
present day have been reared. 

The others we will suppose to have been placed on 
the hill-sides of New England, or on the barren Isle of 
Jersey, or on the highlands of Scotland, or in the pas- 
tures of Devonshire. These being obliged to roam 



88 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



longer for a scantier repast grow more slowly, develop 
their capabilities in regard to size not only more slowly, 
but, perhaps, not fully at all — they become more active 
in temperament and habit, thinner and flatter in mus- 
cle. Their young cannot so soon shift for themselves 
and require more milk, and the dams yield it. Each 
generation in its turn becomes more completely and 
fully adapted to the circumstances amid which they 
are reared, and if bred indiscriminately with any thing 
and every thing else, we by and by have the common 
mixed cattle of New England, miscalled natives ; or 
if kept more distinct, we have something approaching 
the Devon, the Ayrshire, or the Jersey breeds. 

A due consideration of the natural effect of climate 
and food is a point worthy the special attention of the 
stock-husbandman. If the breeds employed be well 
adapted to the situation, and the capacity of the soil 
is such as to feed them fully, profit may be safely 
calculated upon. Animals are to be looked upon as 
machines for converting herbage into money. Now it 
costs a certain amount to keep up the motive power of 
any machine, and also to make good the wear and tear 
incident to its working ; and in the case of animals it is 
only so much as is digested and assimilated, in addi- 
tion to the amount thus required, which is converted into 
meat, milk or wool ; so that the greater the proportion 






LAW OF VARIATION. 39 



which the latter bears to the former, the greater will 
be the profit to be realized from keeping them. 

There has been in New England generally a tendency 
to choose animals of large size, as large as can be had 
from any where, and if they possess symmetry and all 
other good qualities commensurate with the size, and 
if plenty of nutritious food can be supplied, there is an 
advantage gained by keeping such, for it costs less, 
other things being equal, to shelter and care for one 
animal than for two. But our pastures and meadows 
are not the richest to be found any where, and if we 
select such as require, in order to give the profit which 
they are capable of yielding, more or richer food than 
our farms can supply, or than we have the means to 
purchase, we must necessarily fail to reap as much 
profit as we might by the selection of such as could be 
easily fed upon home resources to the point of highest 
profit. 

Whether the selection be of such as are either larger 
or smaller than suit our situation, they will, and equally 
in both cases, vary by degrees towards the fitting size 
or type for the locality in which they are kept, but there 
is this noteworthy difference, that if larger ones be 
brought in, they will not only diminish, but deteriorate, 
while if smaller be brought in, they will enlarge and 
improve. 



40 



PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



The bestowal of food sufficient both in amount and 
quality to enable animals to develop all the excellencies 
inherent in them, and to obtain all the profit to be 
derived from them, is something very distinct from 
undue forcing or pampering. This process may pro- 
duce wonderful animals to look at, but neither useful 
nor profitable ones, and there is danger of thus pro- 
ducing a most undesirable variation, for, as in plants, 
we find that forcing, pampering, high culture or what- 
ever else it may be called, may be carried so far as to 
result in the production of double flowers, (an unnat- 
ural development,) and these accompanied with greater 
or less inability to perfect seed, so in animals, the same 
process may be carried far enough to produce sterility. 
Instances are not wanting, and particularly among the 
more recent improved Short-horns, of impotency among 
the males and of barrenness in the females, and in some 
cases where they have borne calves they have failed to 
secrete milk for their nourishment.* Impotency in 
bulls of various breeds has not unfrequently occurred 
from too high feeding, and especially if connected with 
lack of sufficient exercise.^ 



* See Rowley's Prize Report on Farming in Derbyshire, in Journal 
of Royal Agricultural Society, Vol. 14. 

t A working bull, though perhaps not so pleasing to the eye as a 
fat one, (for fat sometimes covers a multitude of defects,) is a surer 



LAW OF VARIATION. 41 



Habit has a decided influence towards inducing vari- 
ation. As the blacksmith's right arm becomes more 
muscular from the habit of exercise induced by his 
vocation, so we find in domestic animals that use, or 
the demand created by habit, is met by a development 
or change in the organization adapted to the require- 
ment. For instance, with cows in a state of nature or 
where required only to suckle their young, the supply 
of milk is barely fitted to the requirement. If more is 
desired, and if the milk be drawn completely and regu- 
larly, the yield is increased and continued longer. By 
keeping up the demand there is induced in the next 
generation a greater development of the secreting 
organs, and more milk is given. By continuing the 
practice, by furnishing the needful conditions of suita- 
ble food, &c, and by selecting in each generation 
those animals showing the greatest tendency towards 
milk, a breed specially adapted for the dairy may be 
established. It is just by this mode that the Ayrshires 
have, in the past eighty or a hundred years, been 
brought to be what they are, a breed giving more good 
milk upon a given quantity of food than any other. 

It is because the English breeders of modern Short- 
horns altogether prefer beef-making to milk-giving prop- 
stock-getter ; and his progeny is more likely to inherit full health and 
vigor. 



42 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



erties that they have constantly fostered variation in 
favor of the one at the expense of the other until the 
milking" quality in many families is nearly bred out. 
It was not so formerly — thirty years ago the Short- 
horns (or as they were then usually called, the Dur- 
hams) were not deficient in dairy qualities, and some 
families were famous for large yield. By properly 
directed efforts they might, doubtless, be bred back to 
milk, but of this there is no probability, at least in Eng- 
land, for the tendency of modern practice is very strong 
toward having each breed specially fitted to its use — 
the dairy breeds for milk and the beef breeds for meat 
only. The requirements of the English breeder are in 
some respects quite unlike those of New England farm- 
ers — for instance, as they employ no oxen for labor 
there is no inducement to cultivate working qualities 
even, in connection with beef. 

As an illustration of the effect of habit, Darwin* cites 
the domestic duck, of which he says, "I find that the 
bones of the wing weigh less, and the bones of the leg 
more, in proportion to the whole skeleton, than do the 
same bones in the wild duck ; and I presume that this 
change may be safely attributed to the domestic duck 
flying much less and walking more than its wild parent. " 
And again, " not a single domestic animal can be named 

* In his Origin of Species. 



LAW OF VARIATION. 43 



which has not in some country drooping" ears, and the 
view suggested by some authors, that the drooping is 
due to the disuse of the muscles of the ear, from the 
animals not being much alarmed by danger, seems 
probable." 

Climate, food and habit are the principal causes of 
variation which are known to be in any marked degree 
under the control of man ; and the effect of these is, 
doubtless, in some measure indirect and subservient to 
other laws, of reproduction, growth and inheritance, of 
which we have at present very imperfect knowledge. 
This is shown by the fact that the young of the same 
litter sometimes differ considerably from each other, 
though both the young and their parents have appa- 
rently been exposed to exactly the same conditions of 
life ; for had the action of these conditions been spe- 
cific or direct and independent of other laws, if any of 
the young had varied, the whole would probably have 
varied in the same manner. 

Numberless hypotheses have been started to account 
for variation. Some hold that it is as much the func- 
tion of the reproductive system to produce individual 
differences as it is to make the child like the parents. 
Darwin says "the reproductive system is eminently 
susceptible to changes in the conditions of life ; and to 
this system being functionally disturbed in the parents 






44 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



I chiefly attribute the varying or plastic condition of 
the offspring". The male and female sexual elements 
seem to be affected before that union takes place which 
is to form a new being. But why, because the re-pro- 
ductive system is disturbed this or that part should 
vary more or less, we are profoundly ignorant. Nev- 
ertheless we can here and there dimly catch a faint ray 
of light, and we may feel sure that there must be some 
cause for each deviation of structure however slight. " 

It may be useless for us to speculate here upon the 
laws which govern variations. The fact that these 
exist is what the breeder has to deal with, and a most 
important one it is, for it is this chiefly, which makes 
hereditary transmission the problem which it is. His 
aim should ever be to grasp and render permanent and 
increase so far as practicable, every variation for the bet- 
ter, and to reject for breeding purposes such as show a 
downward tendency. 

That this may be done, there is abundant proof in 
the success which has in many instances attended the 
well directed efforts of intelligent breeders. A remark- 
able instance is furnished in the new Mauchamp-Merino 
sheep of Mons. Graux, which originated in a single 
animal, a product of the law of variation, and which by 
skillful breeding and selection has become an estab- 
lished breed of a peculiar type and possessing valuable 



LAW OF VARIATION. 45 



properties. Samples of the wool of these sheep were 
shown at the great exhibition in London, in 1851, and 
attracted much attention. It was also shown at the 
great recent Agricultural Exhibition at Paris. A cor- 
respondent of the Mark Lane Express, says : 

" One of the most interesting portions of the sheep- 
show is that of the Mauchamp variety of Merinos, hav- 
ing a new kind of wool, glossy and silky, similar to 
mohair. This is an instance of an entirely new breed 
being as it were created from a mere sport of nature. 
It was originated by Mons. J. L. Graux. In the year 
1828, a Merino ewe produced a peculiar ram lamb, hav- 
ing a different shape from the usual Merino, and pos- 
sessing a long, straight, and silky character of wool. 
In 1830, M. Graux obtained by this ram one ram and 
one ewe, having the silky character of wool. In 1831, 
among the produce were four rams and one ewe with 
similar fleeces ; and in 1833 there were rams enough of 
the new sort to serve the whole flock of ewes. In each 
subsequent year the lambs were of two kinds ; one pos- 
sessing the curled elastic wool of the old Merinos, only 
a little longer and finer ; the other like the new breed. 
At last, the skillful breeder obtained a flock combining 
the fine silky fleece with a smaller head, broader flanks, 
and more capacious chest ; and several flocks being 
crossed with the Mauchamp variety, have produced 
also the Mauchamp-Merino breed. The pure Mauchamp 
wool is remarkable for its qualities as a combing-wool, 
owing to the strength, as well as the length and fine- 
ness of the fibre. It is found of great value by the 



46 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



manufacturers of Cashmere shawls and similar goods, 
being second only to the true Cashmere fleece, in the 
fine flexible delicacy of the fibre ; and when in combina- 
tion with Cashmere wool, imparting strength and con- 
sistency. The quantity of the wool has now become 
as great or greater than from ordinary Merinos, while 
the quality commands for it twenty-five per cent, higher 
price in the French market. Surely breeders cannot 
watch too closely any accidental peculiarity of conform- 
ation or characteristic in their flocks or herds. " 

Mons. Vilmorin, the eminent horticulturist of Paris, 
has likened the law of similarity to the centripetal force, 
and the law of variation to the centrifugal force ; and 
in truth their operations seem analogous, and possibly 
they may be the same in kind, though certainly unlike 
in this, that they are not reducible to arithmetical calcu- 
lation and cannot be subjected to definite measurement. 
His thought is at least a highly suggestive one and 
may be pursued with profit. 

Among the " faint rays" alluded to by Mr. Darwin 
as throwing light upon the changes dependent on the 
laws of reproduction, there is one, perhaps the brightest 
yet seen, which deserves our notice. It is the apparent 
influence of the male first having fruitful intercourse 
with a female upon her subsequent offspring by other 
males. Attention was first directed to this by the fol- 
lowing circumstance, related by Sir Everard Home : A 
young chestnut mare, seven-eighths Arabian, belonging 



LAW OF VARIATION. 47 



to the Earl of Morton, was covered in 1815 by a Quagga, 
which is a species of wild ass from Africa, and marked 
somewhat in the style of a Zebra. The mare was cov- 
ered but once by the Quagga, and after a pregnancy 
of eleven months and four days gave birth to a hybrid, 
which had, as was expected, distinct marks of the 
Quagga, in the shape of its head, black bars on the 
legs and shoulders, &c. In 1811, 1818 and 1821, the 
same mare was covered by a very fine black Arabian 
horse, and produced successively three foals, and al- 
though she had not seen the Quagga since 1816, they 
all bore his curious and unequivocal markings. 

Since the occurrence of this case numerous others 
of a similar character have been observed, a few of 
which may be mentioned. Mr. McGillivray says, that 
in several foals in the royal stud at Hampton Court, 
got by the horse "Actaeon," there were unmistakable 
marks of the horse " Colonel." The dams of these foals 
were bred from by Colonel the previous year. 

A colt, the property of the Earl of Suffield, got by 
"Laurel," so resembled another horse, "Camel," that 
it was whispered and even asserted at Newmarket that 
he must have been got by "Camel." It was ascer- 
tained, however, that the mother of the colt bore a foal 
the previous year by " Camel." 

Alex. Morrison, Esq., of Bognie, had a fine Clydesdale 



48 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



mare which in 1843 was served by a Spanish ass and 
produced a mule. She afterwards had a colt by a horse, 
which bore a very marked likeness to a mule — seen at 
a distance, every one sets it down at once as a mule. 
The ears are nine and one-half inches long, — the girth 
not quite six feet, stands above sixteen hands high. 
The hoofs are so long and narrow that there is a diffi- 
culty in shoeing them, and the tail is thin and scanty. 
He is a beast of indomitable energy and durability, and 
highly prized by his owner. 

Numerous similar cases are on record,* and it ap- 
pears to have been known among the Arabs for centu- 
ries, that a mare which has first borne a mule, is ever 
after unfit to breed pure horses ;f and the fact seems 
now to be perfectly well understood in all the mule- 
breeding States of the Union. 

A pure Aberdeenshire heifer, the property of a farmer 
in Forgue, was served with a pure Teeswater bull to 
which she had a first cross calf. The following season 
the same cow was served with a pure Aberdeenshire 
bull, the produce was in appearance a cross-bred calf, 
which at two years old had long horns ; the parents 
were both hornless. 

* It was long ago stated by Haller, that when a mare had a foal by 
an ass and afterwards another by a horse, the second offspring be- 
gotten by the horse nevertheless approached in character to a mule. 

t See Abd el Kader's letter. 






LAW OF VARIATION. 49 



A small flock of ewes, belonging to Dr. W. Wells in 
the island of Grenada, were served by a ram procured 
for the purpose ; — the ewes were all white and woolly ; 
the ram was quite different, — of a chocolate color, and 
hairy like a goat. The progeny were of course crosses 
but bore a strong resemblance to the male parent. The 
next season, Dr. Wells obtained a ram of precisely the 
same breed as the ewes, but the progeny showed dis- 
tinct marks of resemblance to the former ram, in color 
and covering. The same thing occurred on neighbor- 
ing estates under like circumstances. 

Six very superior pure-bred black-faced horned ewes, 
belonging to Mr. H. Shaw of Leochel-Cushnie, were 
served by a Leicester ram, (white-faced and hornless.) 
The lambs were crosses. The next year they were 
served by a ram of exactly the same breed as the ewes 
themselves. To Mr. Shaw's astonishment the lambs 
were without an exception hornless and brownish in 
the face, instead of being black and horned. The third 
year (1846) they were again served by a superior ram 
of their own breed, and again the lambs were mongrels, 
but showed less of the Leicester characteristics than 
before. Mr. Shaw at last parted from these fine ewes 
without obtaining a single pure-bred lamb.* 

* Journal of Medical Science, 1850. 



50 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



"It has been noticed that a well bred bitch, if she 
have been impregnated by a mongrel dog, will not 
although lined subsequently by a pure dog, bear thor- 
ough-bred puppies in the next two or three litters. "* 

The like occurrence has been noticed in respect of 
the sow. " A sow of the black and white breed became 
pregnant by a boar of the wild breed of a deep chestnut 
color. The pigs produced were duly mixed, the color 
of the boar being in some very predominant. The sow 
being afterwards put to a boar of the same breed as 
herself, some of the produce were still stained or marked 
with the chestnut color which prevailed in the first lit- 
ter and the same occurred after a third impregnation, 
the boar being then of the same kind as herself. What 
adds to the force of this case is that in the course of 
many years' observation the breed in question was 
never known to produce progeny having the slightest 
tinge of chestnut color.f 

The above are a few of the many instances on record 
tending to show the influence of a first impregnation 
upon subsequent progeny by other males. Not a few 
might also be given showing that the same rule holds 
in the human species, of which a single one will suffice 
here : — " A young woman residing in Edinburgh, and 

* Kirke's Physiology. 

t Philosophical Transactions for 1821. 






r LAW OF VARIATION. 51 



born of white parents, but whose mother previous to 
her marriage bore a mulatto child by a negro man 
servant, exhibits distinct traces of the negro. Dr. Simp- 
son, whose patient at one time, the young woman was, 
recollects being struck with the resemblance, and no- 
ticed particularly that the hair had the qualities char- 
acteristic of the negro. " 

Dr. Carpenter, in the last edition of his work on phys- 
iology, says it is by no means an infrequent occurrence 
for a widow who has married again to bear children 
resembling her first husband. 

Various explanations have been offered to account 
for the facts observed, among which the theory of Mr. 
McGillivray, V. S., which is endorsed by Dr. Harvey, 
and considered (as we shall presently see) as very 
probable at least by Dr. Carpenter, seems the most 
satisfactory. Dr. Harvey says : 

" Instances are sufficiently common among the lower 
animals where the offspring exhibit more or less dis- 
tinctly over and beyond the characters of the male by 
which they were begotten, the peculiarities also of a 
male by which their mother at some former period had 
been impregnated. * * * Great difficulty has been 
felt by physiological writers in regard to the proper 
explanation of this kind of phenomena. They have 
been ascribed by some to a permanent impression made 
somehow by the semen of the first male on the genitals 



52 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



and more particularly on the ova of the female :* and 
by others to an abiding influence exerted by him on the 
imagination and operating at the time of her connection 
subsequently with other males and perhaps during her 
pregnancy ; but they seem to be regarded by most 
physiologists as inexplicable. 

Very recently, in a paper published in the Aberdeen 
Journal, a Veterinary Surgeon, Mr. James McGillivray 
of Huntley, has offered an explanation which seems to 
me to be the true one. His theory is that " when a 
pure animal of any breed has been pregnant to an animal 
of a different breed, such pregnant animal is a cross ever 
after, the purity of her blood being lost in consequence of 
her connection with the foreign animal, herself becoming 
a cross forever, incapable of producing a pure calf of 
any breed. 77 

Dr. Harvey believes " that while as all allow, a por- 
tion of the mother's blood is continually passing by 
absorption and assimilation into the body of the foetus, 
in order to its nutrition and development, a portion of 
the blood of the foetus is as constantly passing in like 
manner into the body of the mother ; that as this com- 
mingles there with the general mass of the mother's 

* The late M. A. Cuming, V. S., of New Brunswick, once remarked 
to the writer, that it might be due to the fact that the nerves of the 
uterus, which before the first impregnation were in a rudimentary- 
state, were developed under a specific influence from the semen of the 
first male, and that they might retain so much of a peculiar style of 
development as to impress upon future progeny by other males the 
likeness of the first. 



LAW OF VARIATION. 53 



own blood, it inoculates her system with the consti- 
tutional qualities of the foetus, and that, as these qual- 
ities are in part derived to the foetus from the male 
progenitor, the peculiarities of the latter are thereby so 
ingrafted on the system of the female as to be commu- 
nicable by her to any offspring she may subsequently 
have by other males/ 7 

In support of this view, Mr. McGillivray cites a case 
in which there was presented unmistakable evidence 
that the organization of the placenta admits the return 
of the venous blood to the mother ; and Dr. Harvey, 
with much force, suggests that the effect produced is 
analagous to the known fact that constitutional syphilis 
has been communicated to a female who never had any 
of the primary symptoms. Regarding the occurrence 
of such phenomena, Dr. Harvey under a later date says : 
" since then I have learned that many among the agri- 
cultural body in this district are familiar to a degree 
that is annoying to them with the facts then adduced 
in illustration of it, finding that after breeding crosses, 
their cows though served with bulls of their own breed 
yield crosses still or rather mongrels ; that they were 
already impressed with the idea of contamination of 
blood as the cause of the phenomenon ; that the doc- 
trine so intuitively commended itself to their minds as 
soon as stated, that they fancied they were told nothing 



54 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



but what they knew before, so just is the observation 
that truth proposed is much more easily perceived than 
without such proposal is it discovered."* 

Dr. Carpenter, speaking of phenomena 1 analogous to 
what are here alluded to, says : 

" Some of these cases appear referable to the strong 
impression left by the first male parent upon the female ; 
but there are others which seem to render it more likely 
that the blood of the female has imbibed from that of 
the foetus, through the placental circulation, some of 
the attributes which the latter has derived from its 
male parent, and that the female may communicate 
these, with those proper to herself, to the subsequent 
offspring of a different male parentage. This idea is 
borne out by a great number of important facts. * * 
As this is a point of great practical importance it may 
be hoped that those who have the opportunity of bring- 
ing observation to bear upon it, will not omit to do so." 

In the absence of more general and accurate observa- 
tions directed to this point, it is impossible to say to 
what extent the first male produces impression upon 
subsequent progeny by other males. There can be no 
doubt, however, but that such an impression is made. 
The instances where it is of so marked and obvious a 
character as in some of those just related may be com- 

* Edinburgh Journal Medical Science, 1849. 



LAW OF VARIATION. 55 



paratively few, yet there is abundant reason to believe, 
that although in a majority of cases the effect may be 
less noticeable, it is not less real, and demands the 
special attention of all breeders. 

Whether this result is to be ascribed to inoculation 
of the system of the female with the characteristics of 
the male through the foetus, or to any other mode of 
operation, it is obviously of great advantage for every 
breeder to know it and thereby both avoid error and 
loss and secure profit. It is a matter which deserves 
thorough investigation and the observations should be 
minute and have regard not only to peculiarities of 
form, but also to qualities and characteristics not so 
obvious ; for instance there may be greater or less har- 
diness, endurance or aptitude to fatten. These may be 
usually more dependent on the dam, but the male is 
never without a degree of influence upon them, and it 
is well established that aptitude to fatten is usually 
communicated by the Short-horn bull to crosses with 
cattle of mixed or mongrel origin which are often very 
deficient in this desirable property. 

Mr. McGillivray says : " A knowledge of the fact 

must be of the greatest benefit to the breeder in two 

ways, positively and negatively. I have known very 

1 great disappointment and loss result from allowing an 

inferior male to serve a first rate female — the useful- 
6 



56 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



ness of such female being thereby forever destroyed. 
As for the positive benefits arising from the inocula- 
tion — they are obvious to any unbiased mind. The 
black polled and Aberdeenshire cattle common to this 
country (Scotland) may be, and often are, improved by 
the following plan : Select a good, well formed, and 
healthy heifer — put her, in proper season, to a pure 
Short-horn bull ; after the! calf to this Durham bull, 
breed from the cow with bulls of her own breed ; occa- 
sionally, and most likely the first time, a red calf ulti- 
mately having horns will appear even from the polled 
bull and cow ; but in general the calves will be of the 
same type with the polled parents but with many 
points improved, and an aptitude to fatten, to come 
earlier to maturity, &c, such as no one of the pure 
polled or Aberdeenshire breed ever exhibited in this 
country, or any other country, however well kept, 
previous to the introduction of the Short-horn breed. 
The offspring of these breeds thus improved, when bred 
from again, will exhibit many points and qualities of 
excellence similar to the best crosses but retaining 
much of the hardiness of the original stock, no mean 
consideration for this changeable and often severe 
climate. And, moreover, such crosses, — for they are 
crosses — will command high prices as improved polled 
or Aberdeenshire cattle. I happen to know of a case 



LAW OF VARIATION. 57 



where a farmer, from a distance purchased a two year 
old heifer of the stamp referred to, for the purpose of 
improving his polled cattle, and for this heifer he paid 
fifty guineas. " 

The knowledge of this law* gives us a clue to the 
cause of many of the disappointments of which practical 
breeders often complain and to the cause of many vari- 
ations otherwise unaccountable, and it suggests par- 
ticular caution as to the first male employed in the 
coupling of animals, a matter which has often been 
deemed of little consequence in regard to cattle, inas- 
much as fewer heifers 7 first calves are reared, than of 
such as are borne subsequently. 

Another faint ray of light touching the causes of 

* A very striking fact may be related in this connection, which 
while it may or may not have a practical bearing on the breeding 
of domestic animals, shows forcibly how mysterious are some of the 
laws of reproduction. It is stated by the celebrated traveler, Count 
de Strzelecki, in his Physical Description of New South Wales and 
Van Dieman's Land. " Whenever," he says, "a fruitful intercourse 
has taken place between an aboriginal woman and an European male, 
that aboriginal woman is forever after incapable of being impreg- 
nated by a male of her own nation, although she may again be 
fertile with a European." The Count, whose means and powers of 
observation are of the highest possible order, affirms that " hundreds 
of instances of this extraordinary fact are on record in the writer's 
memoranda all recurring invariably under the same circumstances, 
all tending to prove that the sterility of the female, which is relative 
only to one and not to the other male is not accidental, but follows 
laws as cogent though as mysterious as the rest of those connected 
with generation." The Count's statement is endorsed by Dr. Maun- 



58 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



variation is afforded us by the fact that the qualities of 
offspring are not only dependent on the habitual con- 
ditions of the parents, but also upon any peculiar con- 
dition existing at the time of sexual congress. For 
instance, the offspring of parents ordinarily healthy and 
temperate, but begotten in a fit of intoxication, would 
be likely to suffer permanently, both physically and 
mentally, from the condition which the parents had 
temporarily brought upon themselves. On the other 
hand, offspring begotten of parents in an unusually 
healthy and active condition of body and mind, would 
likely be unusually endowed both mentally and physi- 
cally. The Arabs in breeding horses take advantage 
of this fact, for before intercourse, both sire and dam 
are actively exercised, not to weariness, but sufficiently 

sell of Dublin, Dr. Carmichael of Edinburgh, and the late Prof. Good- 
sir, who say they have learned from independent sources that as 
regards Australia, Strzelecki's statement is unquestionable and must 
be regarded as the expression of a law of nature. The law does not 
extend to the negro race, the fertility of the negro female not being 
apparently impaired by previous fruitful intercourse with a Euro- 
pean male. 

In reply to an inquiry made whether he had ever noticed excep- 
tional cases, the Count says : "It has not come under my cogni- 
zance to see or hear of a native female which having a child with a 
European had afterwards any offspring with a male of her own race." 

The Count's statement is suggestive as to the disappearance of the 
aborigines of some countries. This has often been the subject of 
severe comment and is generally ascribed to the rum and diseases 
introduced by the white man. It would now appear that other influ- 
ences have also been operative. 






LAW OF VARIATION. 59 



to induce the most vigorous condition possible. Of 
this, too, we have proof in the phenomenon sometimes 
observed by breeders, that a strong mental impression 
made upon the female by a particular male, will give 
the offspring a resemblance to him, even though she 
have no sexual intercourse with him. Of this, Mr. 
Boswell in his prize essay published in 1828, gives a 
remarkable instance. He says that Mr. Mustard of 
Angus, one of the most intelligent breeders he had ever 
met with, told him that one of his cows chanced to 
come into season while pasturing on a field bounded 
by that of one of his neighbors, out of which field an ox 
jumped and went with the cow until she was brought 
home to the bull. The ox was white, with black spots, 
and horned. Mr. Mustard had not a horned beast in 
his possession, nor one with any white on it. Never- 
theless, the produce of the following spring was a black 
and white calf with horns. 

The case of Jacob is often quoted in support of this 
view, and although many believe some miraculous 
agency to have been exerted in his case, and though 
he could say with truth, "God hath taken away the 
cattle of your father and given them to me/ 7 it seems, 
on the whole, more probable, inasmuch as supernatural 
agency may never be presumed, except where we know, 

or have good reason to believe, that natural causes are 
6* 



60 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



insufficient, that God " gave" them, as he now gives to 
some, riches or honors ; that is to say, by virtue of the 
operation of natural laws. If all who keep cattle would 
exercise a tithe of the patriarch's shrewdness and sa- 
gacity in improving their stock, we should see fewer 
ill-favored kine than at present. 

The possibility of some effect being produced by a 
strong impression at the time of conception, is not to 
be confounded with the popular error that "marks" 
upon an infant* are due to a transient, although strong 
impression upon the imagination of the mother at any 
period of gestation, which is unsupported by facts and 
absurd ; but there are facts sufficient upon record to 
prove that habitual mental condition, and especially at 
an early stage of pregnancy, may have the effect to 
produce some bodily deformity, and should induce 
great caution. 

* Carpenter's Physiology, new edition, page 783. 






ANCESTRAL INFLUENCE. 61 



CHAPTER IV. 

Atavism, or Ancestral Influence. 

It may not be easy to say whether this phenomenon 
is more connected with the law of similarity, or with 
that of variation. Youatt, in his work on cattle pub- 
lished by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowl- 
edge, inclines to the former. He speaks of it as show- 
ing the universality of the application of the axiom that 
"like produces like" — that when this "may not seem 
to hold good, it is often because the lost resemblance 
to generations gone by is strongly revived." The phe- 
nomenon, or law, as it is sometimes called, of atavism,* 
or ancestral influence, is one of considerable practical 
importance, and well deserves careful attention by the 
breeder of farm stock. 

Every one is aware that it is nothing unusual for a 
child to resemble its grandfather or grandmother or 
some ancestor still farther back, more than it does either 
its own father or mother. The fact is too familiar to 
require the citing of examples. We find the same oc- 

* From the Latin Atavus — meaning any ancestor indefinitely, as a 
grandmother's great grandfather. 



62 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



currence among our domestic animals, and oftener in 
proportion as the breeds are crossed or mixed up. 
Among our common stock of neat cattle, (natives, as 
they are often called,) originating as they have done 
from animals brought from England, Scotland, Den- 
mark, France and Spain, each possessing different char- 
acteristics of form, color and use; and bred, as our 
common stock has usually been, indiscriminately to- 
gether, with no special point in view, no attempt to 
obtain any particular type or form, or to secure adapta- 
tion for any particular purpose, we have very frequent 
opportunities of witnessing the results of the operation 
of this law of hereditary transmission. So common 
indeed is its occurrence, that the remark is often made, 
that however good a cow may be, there is no telling 
beforehand what sort of a calf she may have. 

The fact is sufficiently obvious that certain peculiari- 
ties often lie dormant for a generation or two and then 
reappear in subsequent progeny. Stockmen often speak 
of it as " breeding back," or " crying back." The cause 
of this phenomenon we may not fully understand. A 
late writer says, "it is to be explained on the supposi- 
tion that the qualities were transmitted by the grand- 
father to the father in whom they were masked by the 
presence of some antagonistic or controlling influence, 
and were thence transmitted to the son in whom the 



ANCESTRAL INFLUENCE. 63 



antagonistic influence being withdrawn they manifest 
themselves. A French writer on Physiology says, if 
there is not inheritance of paternal characteristics, there 
is at least an aptitude to inherit them, a disposition to 
reproduce them ; and there is always a transmission of 
this aptitude to some new descendants, among whom 
these traits will manifest themselves sooner or later.* 
Mr. Singer, let us say, has a remarkable aptitude for 
music ; but the influence of Mrs. Singer is such that 
their children inheriting her imperfect ear, manifest no 
musical talent whatever. These children however have 
inherited the disposition of the father in spite of its 
non-manifestation ; and if, when they transmit what in 
them is latent, the influence of their wives is favorable, 
the grand-children may turn out musically gifted. 

The lesson taught by the law of atavism is very plain. 
It shows the importance of seeking " thorough-bred' ? 
or " well-bred" animals ; and by these terms are simply 
meant such as are descended from a line of ancestors in 
which for many generations the desirable forms, quali- 
ties and characteristics have been uniformly shown. In 
such a case, even if ancestral influence does come in 

* 4< S'il n'y a pas heritage des caracteres paternels il y a done au 

moins aptitude a en heritor, disposition a les reproduire, et toujours 

. cette transmission de cette aptitnde a des noveau descendants, chez 

lesquels ces memes caracteres se manifesteront tot ou tard." — LongeVs 

" Traite de Physiologic ," ii: 133. 



64 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



play, no material difference appears in the offspring, the 
ancestors being all essentially alike. From this stand 
point we best perceive in what consists the money value 
of a good " pedigree. " It is in the evidence which it 
brings that the animal is descended from a line all the 
individuals of which were alike, and excellent of their 
kind, and so is almost sure to transmit like excellencies 
to its progeny in turn ; — not that every animal with a 
long pedigree full of high-sounding names is necessa- 
rily of great value as a breeder, for in every race or 
breed, as we have seen while speaking of the law of 
variation, there will be here and there some which are 
less perfect and symmetrical of their kind than others ; 
and if such be bred from, they may likely enough trans- 
mit undesirable points ; and if they be mated with 
others possessing similar failings, they are almost sure 
to deteriorate very considerably. 

Pedigree is valuable in proportion as it shows an 
animal to be descended, not only from such as are 
purely of its own race or breed, but also from such in- 
dividuals in that breed as were specially noted for the 
excellencies for which that particular breed is esteemed. 
Weeds are none the less worthless because they appear 
among a crop consisting chiefly of valuable plants, nor 
should deformed or degenerate plants, although they 
be true to their kind, ever be employed to produce seed. 



ANCESTRAL INFLUENCE. 65 



If we would have good cabbages or turnips, it is need- 
ful to select the most perfect and the soundest to grow 
seed from, and to continue such selection year after 
year. Precisely the same rule holds with regard to 
animals. 

The pertinacity with which hereditary traits cling to 
the organization in a latent, masked or undeveloped 
condition for long after they might be supposed to be 
wholly "bred out" is sometimes very remarkable. 
What is known among breeders of Short-horns as the 
"Galloway alloy," although originating by the employ- 
ment for only once of a single animal of a different 
breed, is said to be traceable even now, after many 
years, in the occasional development of a "smutty 
nose" in descendants of that family. 

Many years ago there were in the Kennebec valley 
a few polled or hornless cattle. They were not partic- 
ularly cherished, and gradually diminished in numbers. 
Mr. Payne Wingate shot the last animal of this breed, 
(a bull calf or a yearling,) mistaking it in the dark for 
a bear. During thirty-five years subsequently all the 
cattle upon his farm had horns, but at the end of that 
time one of his cows, produced a calf which grew up 
without horns, and Mr. Wingate said it was, in all re- 
spects, the exact image of the first bull of the breed 
brought there. 

Probably the most familiar exemplification of clearly 



66 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 






marked ancestral influence among us, is to be found in 
the ill-begotten, round-breeched calves occasionally, 
and not very unfrequently, dropped by cows of the 
common mixed kind, and which, if killed early, make 
very blue veal, and if allowed to grow up, become 
exceedingly profitless and unsatisfactory beasts ; the 
heifers being often sterile, the cows poor milkers, the 
oxen dull, mulish beasts, yielding flesh of very dark 
color, ill flavor and destitute of fat. They are known 
by various names in different localities, in Maine as the 
"Whitten" and "Peter Waldo" breed, in Massachu- 
setts as " Yorkshire" and " Westminster," in New York 
as the "Pumpkin buttocks," in England as " Lyery" 
or "Lyery Dutch," &c, &c. 

Those in northern New England are believed to be 
descended chiefly from a bull brought from Watervliet, 
near Albany, New York, more than forty years ago, 
(in 1818,) by the Shakers at Alfred, in York county, 
Maine, and afterwards transferred to their brethren in 
Cumberland county. No one who has proved the 
worthlessness of these cattle can readily believe that 
any bull of this sort would have been knowingly kept 
for service since the first one brought into the State, 
and yet it is by no means a rare occurrence to find 
calves dropped at the present time bearing unmistaka- 
ble evidence of that origin. 

It seems likely that this disagreeable peculiarity was 



ANCESTRAL INFLUENCE. 67 



first brought into the country by means of some of the 
early importations of Dutch or of the old Durham breed. 
Culley, in speaking of the Short-horns, inclines to the 
opinion that they were originally from Holland, and 
himself recollected men who in the early part of their 
lives imported Dutch cattle into the county of Durham, 
and of one Mr. Dobinson he says, he was noted for 
having the best breed of Short-horns of any and sold at 
high prices. "But afterwards some other persons of 
less knowledge, going over, brought home some bulls 
that introduced the disagreeable kind of cattle called 
lyery or double lyered, that is, black-fleshed. These will 
feed to great weight, but though fed ever so long will 
not have a pound of fat about them, neither within or 
without, and the flesh (for it does not deserve to be 
called beef) is as black and coarse grained as horse 
flesh. No man will buy one of this kind if he knows 
any thing of the matter, and if he should be once taken 
in he will remember it well for the future ; people con- 
versant with cattle very readily find them out by their 
round form, particularly their buttocks, which are 
turned like a black coach horse, and the smallness of 
the tail ; but they are best known to the graziers and 
dealers in cattle by the feel or touch of the fingers ; in- 
deed it is this nice touch or feel of the hand that in a 
great measure constitutes the judge of cattle. w 

7 



68 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



CHAPTER V. 

Relative Influence of the Parents. 

The relative influence of the male and female parents 
upon the characteristics of progeny has long been a 
fertile subject of discussion among breeders. It is 
found in experience that progeny sometimes resembles 
one parent more than the other, — sometimes there is 
an apparent blending of the characteristics of both, — 
sometimes a noticeable dissimilarity to either, though 
always more or less resemblance somewhere, and some- 
times, the impress of one may be seen upon a portion 
of the organization of the offspring and that of the 
other parent upon another portion ; yet we are not au- 
thorized from such discrepancies to conclude that it is 
a matter of chance, for all of nature's operations are 
conducted by fixed laws, whether we be able fully to 
discover them or not. The same causes always pro- 
duce the same results. In this case, not less than in 
others there are, beyond all doubt, fixed laws, and the 
varying results which we see are easily and sufficiently 
accounted for by the existence of conditions or modify- 
ing influences not fully patent to our observation. 



RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE PARENTS. 69 



In the year 1825, the Highland Society of Scotland, 
proposed as the subject of prize essays, the solution of 
the question, "whether the breed of live stock con- 
nected with agriculture be susceptible of the greatest 
improvement from the qualities conspicuous in the male 
or from those conspicuous in the female parent ?" 
Four essays received premiums. Mr. Boswell, one of 
the prize writers, maintained that it is not only the 
male parent which is capable of most speedily improv- 
ing the breed of live stock, "but that the male is the 
parent which we can alone look to for improvement." 

His paper is of considerable length and ably written — 
abounding in argument and illustrations not easily con- 
densed so as to be given here, and it is but justice to 
add that he also holds that "before the breed of a 
country can be improved, much more must be looked 
to than the answer to the question put by the Highland 
Society — such as crossing, selection of both parents, 
attention to pedigree, and to the food and care of off- 
spring." 

And of crossing, he says, " when I praise the advan- 
tage of crossing, I would have it clearly understood 
that it is only to bring together animals not nearly 
related but always of the same breed ; never attempting 
to breed from a speed horse and a draught mare or vice 
versa." Crossing of breeds "may do well enough for 



70 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



once, but will end in vexation, if attempted to be pro- 
longed into a line." 

Mr. Christian, in his essay, supports the view, that 
the offspring bears the greatest resemblance to that 
parent whether male or female, which has exerted the 
greatest sway of generative influence in the formation 
of the foetus, "that any hypothesis which would assign 
a superiority, or set limits to the influence of either 
sex in the product of generation is unsound and inad- 
missible," and he thus concludes — " as therefore it is 
unsafe to trust to the qualities of any individual ani- 
mal, male or female, in improving stock, the best bred 
and most perfect animals of both sexes should be se- 
lected and employed in propagation ; there being, in 
short, no other certain or equally efficacious means of 
establishing or preserving an eligible breed." 

Mr. Dallas, in his essay, starts with the idea that the 
seminal fluid of the male invests the ovum, the forma- 
tion of which he ascribes to the female ; and he sup- 
ports the opinion, that where external appearance is 

concerned, the influence of the male will be discovered ; 
but in what relates to internal qualities, the offspring 

will take most from the female. He concludes thus : — 

"When color, quality of fleece, or outward form is 

wanted, the male may be most depended on for these ; 

but when milk is the object, when disposition, hardi- 



RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE PARENTS. 71 



ness, and freedom from diseases of the viscera, and, in 
short, all internal qualities that may be desired, then 
the female may be most relied on." 

One of the most valuable of these papers was written 
by the Eev. Henry Berry of Worcestershire, in which, 
after stating that the question proposed is one full of 
difficulty and that the discovery of an independent qual- 
ity such as that alluded to, in either sex, would be at- 
tended with beneficial results, he proceeds to show, 
that it is not to sex, but to high blood, or in other 
words, to animals long and successfully selected, and 
bred with a view to particular qualifications, whether 
in the male or female parent, that the quality is to be 
ascribed, which the Highland Society has been desir- 
ous to assign correctly. 

The origin of the prevalent opinion which assigns 
this power principally to the male, he explains by giv- 
ing the probable history of the first efforts in improving 
stock. The greatest attention would naturally be paid 
to the male, both on account of his more extended ser- 
vices, and the more numerous produce of which he 
could become the parent ; in consequence of which sires 
would be well-bred before dams. "The ideas enter- 
tained respecting the useful qualities of an animal 
would be very similar and lead to the adoption of a 

general standard of excellence, towards which it would 

7* 



72 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 






be required that each male should approximate ; and 
thus there would exist among what may be termed 
fashionable sires, a corresponding form and character 
different from, and superior to, those of the general 
stock of the country. This form and character would 
in most instances have been acquired by perseverance 
in breeding from animals which possessed the important 
or fancied requisites, and might therefore be said to be 
almost confirmed in such individuals. Under these cir- 
cumstances, striking results would doubtless follow the 
introduction of these sires to a common stock ; results 
which would lead superficial observers to remark, that 
individual sires possessed properties as males, which 
in fact were only assignable to them as improved ani- 
mals." 

The opinion entertained by some, that the female 
possesses the power generally ascribed to the male, he 
explains also by a reference to the history of breeding : 
" It is well known to persons conversant with the sub- 
ject of improved breeding, that of late years numerous 
sales have taken place of the entire stocks of celebrated 
breeders of sires, and thus, the females, valuable for 
such a purpose, have passed into a great number of 
hands. Such persons have sometimes introduced a cow 
so acquired to a bull inferior in point of descent and 
general good qualities, and the offspring is known, in 



RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE PARENTS. 73 



many instances, to have proved superior to the sire by 
virtue of the dam's excellence, and to have caused a 
suspicion in the minds of persons not habituated to com- 
pare causes with effects, that certain females also pos- 
sess the property in question." 

The writer gives various instances illustrative of his 
views, in some of which the male only, and in others 
the female only, was the high-bred animal, in all of 
which the progeny bore a remarkable resemblance to 
the well-bred parent. He says, that where both parents 
are equally well bred, and of nearly equal individual 
excellence, it is not probable that their progeny will 
give general proof of a preponderating power in either 
parent to impress peculiar characteristics upon the off- 
spring ; — yet in view of all the information we have 
upon the subject, he recommends a resort to the best 
males as the most simple and efficacious mode of im- 
proving such stocks as require improvement, and the 
only proceeding by which stock already good can be 
preserved in excellence. 

Mon. Giron* expresses the opinion that the relative 
age and vigor of the parents exercises very considera- 
ble influence, and states as the results of his observa- 
tion, that the offspring of an old male and a young 
female resembles the father less than the mother in pro- 

*In his work, " De la Generation," Paris, 1828. 



74 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



portion as the mother is more vigorous and the father 
more decrepit, and that the reverse occurs with the 
offspring of an old female and a young male. 

Among the more recent theories or hypotheses which 
have been started regarding the relative influence of 
the male and female parents, those of Mr. Orton, pre- 
sented in a paper read before the Farmers' Club at 
Newcastle upon Tyne, on the Physiology of Breeding, 
and of Mr. Walker in his work on Intermarriage, as 
they both arrived to a certain extent, at substantially 
the same conclusions by independent observations of 
their own and as these seem to agree most nearly with 
the majority of observed facts, are deemed worthy of 
favorable mention. 

The conclusions of Mr. Orton, briefly stated,* are, 
that in the progeny there is no casual or haphazard 
blending of the parts or qualities of the two parents, 
but rather that organization is transmitted by halves, 
or that each parent contributes to the formation of 
certain structures, and to the development of certain 
qualities. Advancing a step further, he maintains, that 
the male parent chiefly determines the external charac- 
ters, the general appearance, in fact, the outward struct- 
ure and locomotive powers of the offspring, as the 

* Quoted, in part, from a paper by Alex. Harvey, M. D., read be- 
fore the Medical Society of Southampton, June 6th, 1854. 



RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE PARENTS. 75 



framework, or bones and muscles, more particularly 
those of the limbs, the organs of sense and skin ; while 
the female parent chiefly determines the internal struct- 
ures and the general quality, mainly furnishing the vital 
organs, i. e., the heart, lungs, glands and digestive 
organs, and giving tone and character to the vital func- 
tions of secretion, nutrition and growth. "Not how- 
ever that the male is without influence on the internal 
organs and vital functions, or the female without influ- 
ence on the external organs and locomotive powers of 
their offspring. The law holds only within certain re- 
strictions, and these form as it were a secondary law, 
one of limitations, and scarcely less important to be 
understood than the fundamental law itself." 

Mr. Orton relies chiefly on the evidence presented by 
hybrids, the progeny of distinct species, or by crosses 
between the most distinct varieties embraced within a 
single species, to establish his law. The examples 
adduced are chiefly from the former. The mule is the 
progeny of the male ass and the mare ; the hinny, that 
of the horse and the she ass. Both hybrids are the 
produce of the same set of animals. They differ widely, 
however, in their respective characters — the mule in 
all that relates to its external characters having the 
distinctive features of the ass, — the hinny, in the same 
respects having all the distinctive features of the horse ; 



76 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



while in all that relates to the internal organs and vital 
qualities, the mule partakes of the character of the 
horse, and the hinny of those of the ass. Mr. Orton 
says — " The mule, the produce of the male ass and 
mare, is essentially a modified ass : the ears are those 
of an ass somewhat shortened ; the mane is that of the 
ass, erect ; the tail is that of an ass ; the skin and color 
are those of an ass somewhat modified ; the legs are 
slender and the hoofs high, narrow and contracted, like 
those of an ass. In fact, in all these respects it is an 
ass somewhat modified. The body and barrel, how- 
ever, of the mule are round and full, in which it differs 
from the ass and resembles the mare. 

The hinny, on the other hand, the produce of the 
stallion and she ass, is essentially a modified horse. 
The ears are those of a horse somewhat lengthened ; 
the mane flowing ; the tail bushy, like that of the horse ; 
the skin is finer, like that of the horse, and the color 
varies also, like the horse ; the legs are stronger and 
the hoofs broad and expanded like those of the horse. 
In fact, in all these respects it is a horse somewhat 
modified. The body and barrel, however, of the hinny 
are flat and narrow, in which it differs from the horse 
and resembles the she ass. 

A very curious circumstance pertains to the voice of 
the mule and the hinny. The mule brays, the hinny 



RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE PARENTS. 77 



neighs. The why and wherefore of this is a perfect 
mystery until we come to apply the knowledge afforded 
us by the law before given. The male gives the loco- 
motive organs, and the muscles are amongst these ; 
the muscles are the organs which modulate the voice 
of the animal ; the mule has the muscular structure 
of its sire, and brays ; the hinny has the muscular 
structure of its sire, and neighs. " 

In connexion with these examples Mr. Orton refers 
to a special feature seen equally in the two instances, 
and which seems at first sight, a departure from the 
principle laid down by him. It is this, both hybrids, 
the mule and the hinny take after the male parents in 
all their external characters save one, which is size. 
In this respect they both follow the female parents, the 
male being in all respects a larger and finer animal than 
its sire, the ass ; the hinny being in all respects a smaller 
and inferior animal to its sire, the horse, the body and 
barrel of the mule being large and round, those of the 
hinny being flat and narrow ; both animals being in 
these particulars the reverse of their respective sires, 
but both resembling their female parents. 

In explanation of this seeming exception is adduced 
a well known principle in physiology, which is, that the 
whole bony framework is moulded in adaptation to the 
softer structures immediately related to it ; the muscles 



78 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



covering" it in the case of the limbs ; and to the viscera 
in that of the great cavities which it assists in forming. 
Accordingly, in perfect accordance with the views 
above expressed, the general size and form which must 
be mainly that of the trunk, will be determined by the 
size and character of the viscera of the chest and abdo- 
men, and will therefore accord with that of the female 
parents by whom the viscera in question are chiefly 
furnished. 

The foregoing are the most important of Mr. Orton's 
statements. He gives, however, numerous additional 
illustrations from among beasts, birds and fishes, of 
which we quote only the following : 

"The mule and the hinny have been selected and 
placed first, because they afford the most conclusive 
evidence and are the most familiar. Equally conclu- 
sive, though perhaps less striking instances, may be 
drawn from other sources. Thus, it has been observed 
that when the Ancon or Otter sheep were allowed to 
breed with common ewes, the cross is not a medium 
between the two breeds, but that the offspring retains 
in a great measure the short and twisted legs of the 
sire. 

Buffon made a cross between the male goat and the 
ewe ; the resulting hybrid in all the instances, which 
were many, were strongly characteristic of the male 



RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE PARENTS. 79 



parent, more particularly in the hair and length of leg. 
Curious enough, the number of teats in some of the 
cases corresponded with those of the goat. 

A cross between the male wolf and a bitch illustrates 
the same law : the offspring having a markedly wolfish 
aspect ; skin, color, ears and tail. On the other hand, 
a cross between the dog and female wolf afforded ani- 
mals much more dog-like in aspect — slouched ears 
and even pied in color. If you look at the descriptions 
and illustrations of these two hybrids, you will perceive 
at a glance that the doubt arises to the mind in the case 
of the first, ' what genus of tcolf is this V whereas in 
the case of the second, ' what a curious mongrel dog! 7 

The views of Mr. Walker in his work on Intermar- 
riage, before alluded to, agree substantially with those 
of Mr. Orton, so far as regains crossing between differ- 
ent breeds ; but they cover a broader field of observa- 
tion and in some respects differ. Mr. Walker main- 
tains that when both parents are of the same breed 
that either parent may transmit either half of the organi- 
zation. That when they are of different varieties or 
breeds (and by parity of reasoning the same should 
hold, strongly, when hybrids are produced by crossing 
different species) and supposing also that both parents 
are of equal age and vigor, that the male gives the back 
head and locomotive organs and the female the face and 



80 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



nutritive organs — I quote his language: 'when both 
parents are of the same variety, one parent communi- 
cates the anterior part of the head, the bony part of the 
face, the forms of the organs of sense (the external ear, 
under lip, lower part of the nose and eye brows being 
often modified) and the whole of the internal nutritive 
system, (the contents of the trunk or the thoracic and 
abdominal viscera, and consequently the form of the 
trunk itself in so far as that depends on its contents.) 

The resemblance to that parent is consequently found 
in the forehead and bony parts of the face, as the orbits, 
cheek bones, jaws, chin and teeth, as well as the shape 
of the organs of sense and the tone of the voice. 

Tlie other parent communicates the posterior part of 
the head, the cerebel situated within the skull immediately 
above its junction with the back of the neck, and the whole 
of the locomotive system ; (the bones, ligaments and mus- 
cles or fleshy parts.) 

The resemblance to that parent is consequently found 
in the back head, the few more movable parts of the 
face, as the external ear, under lip, lower part of the 
nose, eyebrows, and the external forms of the body, in 
so far as they depend on the muscles as well as the 
form of the limbs, even to the fingers, toes and nails. * * 

It is a fact established by my observations that in 
animals of the same variety, either the male or the female 



RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE PARENTS. 81 



parent may give either series of organs as above ar- 
ranged — that is either forehead and organs of sense, 
together with the vital and nutritive organs, or back 
head, together with the locomotive organs." 

To show that among domesticated animals organiza- 
tion is transmitted by halves in the way indicated, and 
that either parent may give either series of organs, he 
cites among other instances the account of the Ancon 
sheep. "When both parents are of the Ancon or 
Otter breed, their descendants inherit their peculiar 
appearance and proportions of form. When an Ancon 
ewe is impregnated by a common ram, the progeny 
resembles wholly either the ewe or the ram. The pro- 
geny of a common ewe impregnated by an Ancon ram 
follows entirely in shape the one or the other without 
blending any of the distinguishing and essential pecu- 
liarities of both. 

1 Frequent instances have occurred where common 
ewes have had twins by Ancon rams ; when one exhi- 
bited the complete marks and features of the ewe and 
the other of the ram. The contrast has been rendered 
singularly striking when one short legged and one long 
legged lamb produced at a birth have been sucking the 
dam at the same time.' 

As the short and crooked legs or those of opposite 
form, here indicate the parent giving the locomotive 



82 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



system, it is evident that one of the twins derived it 
from one parent and the other twin from the other 
parent ; — the parent not giving it, doubtless communi- 
cating in each case, the vital or nutritive system." 

Where the parents are of different varieties or species, 
Mr. Walker says, "The second law, namely, that of 
crossing, operates where each parent is of a different 
breed, and where, supposing both to be of equal age 
and vigor, the male gives the back head and locomotive 
organs, and the female the face and nutritive organs. 77 

After giving numerous illustrations from facts and 
many quotations from eminent breeders, he says, "thus, 
in crosses of cattle as well as of horses, the male, except 
where feebler or of inferior voluntary and locomotive 
power, gives the locomotive system, the female the 
vital one." 

W. C. Spooner, V. S., one of the most eminent au- 
thorities of the present day on this subject, and writing 
within the past year in the Journal of the Royal Agri- 
cultural Society, says : — "The most probable supposi- 
tion is, that propagation is done by halves, each parent 
giving to the offspring the shape of one half of the 
body. Thus the back, loins, hind-quarters, general 
shape, skin and size follow one parent ; and the fore- 
quarters, head, vital and nervous system, the other ; 
and we may go so far as to add, that the former in the 



RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE PARENTS. 83 



groat majority of cases go with the male parent, and 
the latter with the female. A corroboration of this fact 
is found in the common system of putting an ordinary 
mare to a thorough-bred horse ; not only does the head 
of the offspring resemble the dam but the forelegs like- 
wise, and thus it is fortunately the case that the too- 
frequently faulty and tottering legs of the sire are not 
reproduced in the foal, whilst the full thighs and hind 
quarters which belong to the blood-horse are generally 
given to the offspring. There is however a minority 
of cases in which the opposite result obtains. That 
size is governed more by the male parent there is no 
great difficulty in showing ; familiar examples may be 
found in the pony-mare and the full sized horse, which 
considerably exceed the dam in size. Again, in the 
first cross between the small indigenous ewe and the 
large ram of another improved breed — the offspring is 
found to approach in size and shape very much to the 
ram. The mule offspring of the mare also much resem- 
bles both in size and appearance its donkey sire. These 
are familiar examples of the preponderating influence 
of the male parent, so far as the external form is con- 
sidered. To show however that size and hight do not 
invariably follow the male, we need go no further for 
illustration than the human subject. How often do we 
find that in the by no means unfrequent case of the 



84 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



union of a tall man with a short woman, the result in 
some instances is that all the children are tall and in 
others all short ; or sometimes that some are short and 
others tall. Within our own knowledge in one case, 
where the father was tall and the mother short, the 
children, six in number, are all tall. In another in- 
stance, the father being short and the mother tall, the 
children, seven in number, are all of lofty stature. In 
a third instance, the mother being tall and the father 
short, the greater portion of the family are short. Such 
facts as these are sufficient to prove that hight or 
growth does not exclusively follow either the one parent 
or the other. Although this is the case, it is also a 
striking fact that the union of tall and short parents 
rarely, if ever, produces offspring of a medium size — 
midway, as it were, between the two parents. 

Thus, in the breeding of animals, if the object be to 
modify certain defects by using a male or female in 
which such defects may not exist, we cannot produce 
this desired alteration ; or rather it cannot be equally 
produced in all the offspring, but can only be attained 
by weeding out those in whom the objectionable points 
are repeated. We are, however, of opinion that in the 
majority of instances, the hight in the human subject, 
and the size and contour in animals, is influenced much 
more by the male than the female parent — and on the 



RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE PARENTS. 85 



other hand, that the constitution, the chest and vital 
organs, and the forehand generally more frequently 
follow the female." 

Dr. Carpenter, the highest authority in Physiology, 
says "it has long been a prevalent idea that certain 
parts of the organism of the offspring are derived from 
the male, and certain other parts from the female 
parent ; and although no universal rule can be laid 
down upon this point, yet the independent observa- 
tions which have been made by numerous practical 
breeders of domestic animals seem to establish that 
such a tendency has a real existence ; the characters of 
the animal portion of the fabric being especially (but 
not exclusively) derived from the male parent, and those 
of the organic apparatus being in like manner derived 
from the female parent. The former will be chiefly 
manifested in the external appearance, in the general 
configuration of the head and limbs, in the organs of 
the senses (including the skin) and in the locomotive 
apparatus ; whilst the latter show themselves in the size 
of the body (which is primarily determined by the devel- 
opment of the viscera contained in the trunk) and in the 
mode in which the vital functions are performed." 

On the whole it may be said that the evidence both 
from observation and the testimony of the best practical 
breeders goes to show that each parent usually con- 



86 [PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



tributes certain portions of the organization to the 
offspring, and that each has a modifying influence upon 
the other. Facts also show that the same parent does 
not always contribute the same portions, but that the 
order is reversed. Now, as no operation of nature is 
by accident, but by virtue of law, there must be fixed 
laws here, and there must also be, at times, certain in- 
fluences at work to modify the action of these laws. 
Where animals are of distinct species, or of distinct 
breeds, transmission is usually found to be in accord- 
ance with the rule above indicated, i. e. the male gives 
mostly the outward form and locomotive system, and 
the female chiefly the interior system, constitution, &c. 
Where the parents are of the same breed, it appears 
that the portions contributed by each are governed in 
large measure by the condition of each in regard to age 
and vigor, or by virtue of individual potency or superi- 
ority of physical endowment. 

This potency or power of transmission seems to be 
legitimately connected with high breeding, or the con- 
centration of fixed qualities obtained by continued de- 
scent for many generations from such only as possess 
in the highest degree the qualities desired. On the 
other hand it must be admitted that there are excep- 
tional cases not easily accounted for upon any theory, 
and it seems not improbable that in these the modifjang 



RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE PARENTS. 87 



influences may be such as to effect what may approxi- 
mate a reconstruction or new combination of the ele- 
ments, in a manner analogous to the chemical changes 
which we know take place in the constituents of vege- 
tables, as for instance, we find that sugar, gum and 
starch, substances quite unlike in their appearance and 
uses, are yet formed from the same elements and in 
nearly or precisely the same proportions, by a chemistry 
which we have not yet fathomed. Whether this sup- 
position be correct or not, there is little doubt that if 
we understood fully all the influences at work, and could 
estimate fairly all the data to judge from, we might 
predict with confidence what would be the characteris- 
tics of the JDrogeny from any given union. 

Practically, the knowledge obtained dictates in a 
most emphatic manner that every stock-grower use his 
utmost endeavor to obtain the services of the best 
sires ; that is, the best for the end and purposes in view — 
that he depend chiefly on the sire for outward form and 
symmetry — that he select dams best calculated to de- 
velop the good qualities of the male, depending chiefly 
upon these for freedom from internal disease, for hardi- 
hood, constitution, and generally for all qualities de- 
pendent upon the vital or nutritive system. 

The neglect which is too common, and especially in 
breeding horses, to the qualities of the dam, miserably 



88 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



old and inferior females being often employed, cannot 
be too strongly censured. In rearing valuable horses 
the dams are not of less consequence than the sires, 
although their influence upon the progeny be not the 
same. This is well understood and practiced upon by 
the Arab, who cultivates endurance and bottom. If his 
mare be of the true Kochlani breed he will part with 
her for no consideration whatever, while you can buy 
his stallion at a comparatively moderate price. The 
prevalent practice in England and America of cultiva- 
ting speed in preference to other qualities, has led us 
to attach greater importance to the male, and the too 
common neglect of health, vigor, endurance and consti- 
tution in the mares has in thousands of cases entailed 
the loss of qualities not less valuable, and without which 
speed alone is of comparatively little worth. 






sex. 89 



CHAPTER VI. 

Sex. 

With regard to the laws which regulate the sex of 
progeny very little is known. Many and extensive 
observations have been made, but without arriving at 
any definite conclusions. Nature seems to have pro- 
vided that the number of either sex produced, shall be 
nearly equal, but by what means this result is attained, 
has not been discovered. Some physiologists think the 
sex decided by the influence of the sire, others think it 
due to the mother. Sir Everard Home believed the 
ovum or germ, previous to impregnation to be of no 
sex, but so formed as to be equally fitted to become 
either male or female, and that it is the process of 
impregnation which marks the sex and forms the gen- 
erative organs ; that before the fourth month the sex 
cannot be said to be confirmed, and that it will prove 
male or female as the tendency to the paternal or ma- 
ternal type may preponderate. 

Mr. T. A. Knight* was of opinion that the sex of 
progeny depended upon the influence of the female 

* Philosophical Transactions, 1809. 



90 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



parent. He says, "The female parent's influence upon 
the sex of offspring in cows, and I have reason to be- 
lieve in the females of our other domestic animals, is so 
strong", that it may, I think, be pronounced nearly 
positive." He also says, "I have repeatedly proved 
that by dividing a herd of thirty cows into three equal 
parts, I could calculate with confidence upon a large 
majority of females from one part, of males from an- 
other, and upon nearly an equal number of males and 
females from the remainder. I have frequently en- 
deavored to change the habits by changing the male 
without success." He relates a case as follows: — 
"Two cows brought all female offspring, one fourteen 
in fifteen years, and the other fifteen in sixteen years, 
though I annually changed the bull. Both however 
produced one male each, and that in the same year ; 
and I confidently expected, when the one produced a 
male that the other would, as she did." 

M. Giron, after long continued observation and ex- 
periment, stated with much confidence, that the general 
law upon this point was, that the sex of progeny would 
depend on the greater or less relative vigor of the in- 
dividuals coupled. In many experiments purposely 
made, he obtained from ewes more males than females 
by coupling very strong rams with ewes either too 
young, or too aged, or badly fed, and more females than 



SEX. 91 

males by a reverse choice in the ewes and rams he put 
together. 

Mon. Martegoute, formerly Professor of Rural Econ- 
omy, in a late communication to the "Journal D'Agri- 
culture Pratique/ ' says that as the result of daily 
observations at a sheepfold of great importance, that 
of the Dishley Mauchamp Merinos of M. Viallet at 
Blanc, he has, if not deceived, obtained some new hints. 
He states that Giron's law developed itself regularly 
at the sheepfold in all cases where difference of vigor 
was observed in the ewes or rams which were coupled ; 
but he adds another fact, which he had observed every 
year since 1853, when his observations began. This 
fact consists — 

First, In that at the commencement of the rutting 
season when the ram is in his full vigor he procreated 
more males than females. 

Second, When, some days after, and the ewes coming 
in heat in great numbers at once, the ram being weak- 
ened by a more frequent renewal of the exertion, the 
procreation of females took the lead. 

Third, The period of excessive exertion having 
passed, and the number of ewes in heat being dimin- 
ished, the ram also found less weakened, the procrea- 
tion of males in majority again commenced." 

In order to show that the cause of such a result is 

9 



92 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



isolated from all other influences of a nature to be con- 
founded with it, he gives the details of his observations 
in a year when the number of births of males and 
females were about equal. He also goes on to say, 
that, " at the end of each month all the animals at the 
sheepfold are weighed separately, and thanks to these 
monthly weighings, we have drawn up several tables 
from which are seen the diminution or increase in 
weight of the different animals classed in various points 
of view, whether according to age, sex or the object 
for which they were intended. 

Two of these tables have been appropriated to bear- 
ing ewes — one to those which have borne and nursed 
males and the other to those which have borne and 
brought up females. The abstract results of these two 
tables have furnished two remarkable facts. 

First, The ewes that have produced the female lambs 
are, on an average, of a weight superior to those that 
produced the males ; and they evidently lose more in 
weight than these last during the suckling period. 

Second, The ewes that produce males weigh less, and 
do not lose in nursing so much as the others. 

If the indications given by these facts come to be 
confirmed by experiments sufficiently repeated, two 
new laws will be placed by the side of that which Giron 
de Bazareingues has determined by his observations 



sex. 93 

and experiments. On the one hand, as, at liberty, or 
in the savage state, it is a general rule that the pre- 
dominance in acts of generation belongs to the strong- 
est males to the exclusion of the weak, and as such a 
predominance is favorable to the procreation of the 
male sex, it would follow that the number of males 
would tend to surpass incessantly that of the females, 
amongst whom no want of energy or power would turn 
aside from generation, and the species would find in it 
a fatal obstacle to its reproduction. But, on the other 
hand, if it was true that the strongest females and the 
best nurses amongst them produce females rather than 
males, nature would thus oppose a contrary law, which 
would establish the equilibrium, and by an admirable 
harmony would secure the perfection and preservation 
of the species, by confiding the reproduction of either 
sex to the most perfect type of each respectively. " 



94 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



CHAPTER VII. 
In-and-in Breeding. 

It has long been a disputed point whether the system 
of breeding in-and-in or the opposite one of frequent 
crossing has the greater tendency to maintain or im- 
prove the character of stock. The advocates of both 
systems are earnest and confident of being in the right. 
The truth probably is, as in some other similar disputes, 
that both are right and both wrong — to a certain ex- 
tent, or within certain limits. 

The term in-and-in is often very loosely used and is 
variously understood ; some, and among these several 
of the best writers, confine the phrase to the coupling 
of those of exactly the same blood, i. e. brothers and 
sisters ; while others include in it breeding from parents 
and offspring, and others still employ the term to em- 
brace those of more distant relationship. For the lat- 
ter, the term breeding in, or close breeding, is deemed 
more fitting. 

The prevalent opinion is decidedly against the prac- 
tice of breeding from any near relationships ; it being 
usually found that degeneracy follows, and often to a 



IN-AND-IN BREEDING. 95 



serious degree ; but it is not proved that this degener- 
acy, although very common and even usual, is yet a 
necessary consequence. That ill effects follow in a 
majority of cases is not to be doubted, but this is easily 
and sufficiently accounted for upon other grounds. In 
a state of nature animals of near affinities interbreed 
without injurious results, and it is found by experience 
that where domesticated animals are of a pure race, or 
of a distinct, well defined and pure breed, the coupling 
of those of near affinities is not so often followed by 
injurious effects as when they are crosses, or of mixed 
or mongrel origin, like the great majority of the cattle 
in the country at large. In the latter case breeding 
in-and-in is usually found to result in decided and rapid 
deterioration. We should consider also that few ani- 
mals in a state of domestication are wholly free from 
hereditary defects and diseases, and that these are pro- 
pagated all the more readily and surely when possessed 
by both parents, and that those nearly related are more 
likely than others, to possess similar qualities and ten- 
dencies. 

If such is to be regarded as the true explanation, it 
follows that the same method would be also efficacious 
in perpetuating and confirming good qualities. Such 
is the fact ; and it is well known that nearly all who 

have achieved eminence as breeders, have availed them- 
9* 



9Q PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



selves freely of its benefits. Bakewell, the Messrs, 
Colling, Mr. Mason, Mr. Bates and others, all prac- 
ticed it. Mr. Bates' rule was, "breed in-and-in from a 
bad stock and you cause ruin and devastation, they 
must always be changing to keep even moderately in 
caste ; but if a good stock be selected, you may breed 
in-and-in as much as you please."* Bakewell origina- 
ted his famous sheep by crossing from the best he could 
gather from far or near ; but when he had obtained such 
as suited him, he bred exclusively from within his own. 
As in all breeding from crosses, it was needful to throw 
out as weeds, a large proportion of the progeny, but by 
rigidly doing so, and saving none to breed from but 
such as became more and more firmly possessed of the 
forms and qualities desired, the weeds gradually became 
fewer, until at length he fully established the breed ; 
and he continued it, and sustained its high reputation 
during his . life by in-breeding connected with proper 
selections for coupling. After his death, others, not 
possessing his tact and judgment in making selections, 
were less fortunate, and in some hands the breed degen- 
erated seriously, insomuch that it was humorously re- 
marked, "there was nothing but a little tallow left." 
In others it has been maintained by the same method. 

* Mr. Bates, although eminent as a breeder, was not infallible in 
making his selections, and after long continued close breeding, he was 
compelled to go out of his own herd to procure breeding animals. 



IN-AND-IN BREEDING. 97 



Mr. Valentine Barford of Foscote, has the pedigree of 
his Leicester sheep since the day of Bakewell, in IT 83, 
and since 1810, he has bred entirely from his own flock, 
sire and dam, without an inter-change of male or female 
from any other flock. He observes "that his flock be- 
ing bred from the nearest affinities — commonly called 
in-and-in breeding — has not experienced any of the ill 
effects ascribed to the practice." W. C. Spooner, V. S., 
speaking of Mr. Barford's sheep says, "His flock is 
remarkably healthy and his rams successful, but his 
sheep are small." 

Mr. Charles Colling, after he procured the famous 
bull Hubback, selected cows most likely to develop his 
special excellencies, and from the progeny of these he 
bred very closely. From that day to this, the Short- 
horns as a general thing, have been very closely bred,* 

* Probably few who have not critically examined the facts regard- 
ing close breeding in the improved Short-horns are aware of the 
extent to which it has been carried. On the 28th of March, 1860, 
at a sale of Short-horns at Milcote, near Stratford upon Avon 
(England) thirty-one descendants of a cow called "Charmer," bred 
of Mr. Colling's purest blood, and praised in the advertisement as 
"capital milkers and very prolific, not having been pampered ," sold 
for £2,140, averagingabout £350 each, and many of them were calves. 
The stock was also praised as " offering to the public as much of the 
pure blood of ' Favorite' as could be found in any herd. ' ' With refer- 
ence to this sale, which also comprised other stock, the Agricultural 
Gazette, published a few days previous, had some remarks from which 
the following is extracted: 

" It is unquestionable that the ability of a cow or bull to transmit 



98 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



and the practice has been carried so far, the selections 
not always being the most judicious possible, as to re- 

the merit either may possess does in a great degree depend upon its 
having been inherited by them through a long line of ancestry. 
Nothing is more remarkable than the way in which the earlier im- 
provers of the Short-horn breed carried out their belief in this. They 
were indeed driven by the comparative fewness of well bred animals 
to a repeated use of the same sire on successive generations of his 
own begetting, while breeders now-a-days have the advantage of fifty 
different strains and families from which to choose the materials of 
their herd, but whether it were necessity or choice it is certain that 
the pedigree of no pure bred Short-horn can be traced without very 
soon reaching many an illustration of the way in which 'breeding 
in-and-in' has influenced its character, deepened it, made it perma- 
nent, so that it is handed down unimpaired and even strengthened 
in the hands of the judicious breeder. What an extraordinary influ- 
ence has thus been exerted by a single bull on the fortunes of the 
Short-horn breed ! There is hardly a single choice pure-bred Short- 
horn that is not descended from ' Favorite' (252) and not only 
descended in a single line — but descended in fifty different lines. 
Take any single animal, and this bull shall occur in a dozen of its 
preceding generations and repeatedly up to a hundred times ! in the 
animals of some of the more distant generations. His influence is 
thus so paramount in the breed that one fancies he has created it and 
that the present character of the whole breed is due the s accidental' 
appearance of an animal of extraordinary endowments on the stage 
in the beginning of the present century. And yet this is not so ; — he 
is himself an illustration of the breeding in-and-in system — his sire 
and dam having been half brother and sister, both got by ' Foljambe.' 
And this breeding in-and-in has handed down his influence to the 
present time in an extraordinary degree. Take for instance, the cow 
8 Charmer,' from which as will be seen elsewhere, no fewer than 
thirty-one descendants are to be sold next Wednesday. She had of 
course two immediate parents, four progenitors in the second gener- 
ation, eight in the third, sixteen in the fourth, the number necessarily 
doubling each step farther back. Of the eight bulls named in the 
fourth generation from which she was descended, one was by ' Favor- 



IN-AND-IN BREEDING. 99 



suit in many cases in delicacy of constitution, and in 
some where connected with pampering, in sterility. f 

Col. Jaques, of the Ten Hills Farm near Boston, 
imported a pair of Bremen geese in 1822. They were 
bred together till 1830, when the gander was acciden- 
tally killed. Since then the goose bred with her off- 
spring till she was killed by an attack of dogs in 1852. 
Great numbers were bred during this time, and of course 
there was much of the closest breeding, yet there was 

ite.' She is one-sixteenth. 'Favorite' on that account, but the cow 
to which he was then put was also descended from ' Favorite,' and 
so are each of the other seven bulls and seven cows which stand on 
the same level of descent with the gr. gr. g. dam of ' Charmer. ' And 
in fact it will be found on examination that in so far as ' Charmer's' 
pedigree is known, which it is in some instances to the sixteenth 
generation, she is not one-sixteenth only but nearly nine-sixteenths 
of pure Favorite blood. This arises from ' Favorite' having been 
used repeatedly on cows descended from himself. In the pedigree of 
' Charmer' we repeatedly meet with ' Comet' — ' Comet' was by ' Fa- 
vorite' and his dam 'Young Phoenix' was also by 'Favorite ;' with 
' George' — ' George' was by ' Favorite' and his dam ' Lady Grace' 
was also by 'Favorite;' with ' Chilton' — ' Chilton' was by 'Favorite' 
and his dam was also by ' Favorite;' with 'Minor' — 'Minor' was by 
' Favorite' and his dam also was by ' Favorite;' with ' Peeress' — she 
was by 'Favorite' and her dam also by 'Favorite;' with 'Bright 
Eyes' — she was by ' Favorite' and her dam also by ' Favorite;' with 
'Strawberry' — she was by 'Favorite' and her dam by 'Favorite;' 
'Dandy,' 'Moss Rose,' among the cows and 'North Star' among 
the bulls are also of similar descent. 

There is no difficulty therefore in understanding how this name 
appears repeatedly in any given generation of the pedigree of any 
given animal of the Short-horn breed." 

t Journal Royal Agricultural Society, volume 20, page 297. 



100 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



no deterioration, and in fact some of the later ones were 
larger and better than the first pair. 

The same gentleman also obtained a pair of wild 
geese from Canada in 1818, which with their progeny- 
were bred from without change until destroyed by dogs 
with the above named in 1852. They continued perfect 
as at first. 

Among gregarious ruminating animals in a state of 
nature, all who associate in a herd acknowledge a chief- 
tain, or head, who maintains his position by virtue of 
physical health, strength and general superiority. He 
not only directs all their movements but is literally the 
father of the herd. When a stronger than he comes, 
the post of chieftain and sire is yielded, but in all proba- 
bility his successor is one of his own sons, who in turn 
begets offspring by his sisters. The progeny inherit- 
ing full health, strength and development, the herd 
continues in full power and vigor,* and does not degen- 
erate as often happens when man assumes to make the 
selections, and chooses according to fancy or conveni- 
ence. The continuance of health, strength and perfect 

* It may be said with truth, that the average health and vigor of a 
wild herd is much higher than it would be if the feebler portion of 
the young were reared, as in a state of domestication, instead of being 
destroyed by the stronger, or perishing from hardship ; but if close 
breeding be, of itself and necessarily, injurious, the whole herd should 
gradually fail, which is not found to be the case. 



IN-AND-IN BREEDING. JQ1 



physical development is believed to depend on the wis- 
dom of the selection, upon the presence of the desirable 
hereditary qualities, and the absence of injurious ones, and 
not upon relationship whether near or remote. 

It has fallen within the observation of most persons 
that in the human race frequent intermarriages in the 
same family for successive generations often tend to 
degeneracy of both mind and body ; size and vigor 
diminishing, and constitutional defects and diseases 
being perpetuated and aggravated ; but neither in this 
case is the result believed to be a necessary and inevi- 
table consequence. Else how could it be, that Infinite 
Wisdom, whose operations are ever in accordance with 
the laws of his own institution, in originating a " pe- 
culiar people, " chosen to be the depositories of intel- 
lectual and physical power, wealth and influence, and 
who, in spite of oppression without parallel in the 
world's history, have ever maintained the possession of 
a goodly share of all these, — would have allowed their 
first progenitor, Abraham, to marry his near kinswoman 
Sarah, a half sister, niece or cousin, and Isaac their son 
to wed his first cousin Eebecca, and Jacob who sprang 
from that union, to marry first cousins, and their off- 
spring for long generations to intermarry within their 
own people and tribes alone ? At a later period, mar- 
riages within certain degrees of consanguinity were 



102 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



forbidden by Divine authority, but not until the pecu- 
liar race was fully established, and so far multiplied, as 
to allow departure from close breeding without change 
of characteristics, and not improbably the prohibition 
was even then based more upon moral reasons, or upon 
man's ignorance or recklessness regarding selection, 
than upon physical law. 

Such laws exist among us at present, and it is well 
they do, inasmuch as for the reasons already given 
there is greater probability of degeneracy by means of 
such connections than among those not so related by 
blood. But they present an instance of the imperfec- 
tion of human laws, it being impossible for any legal 
enactments to prevent wholly the evil thus sought to 
be avoided. It would be better far, if such a degree of 
physiological knowledge existed and such caution was 
exercised among the community generally, as would 
prevent the contraction of any marriages, where, from 
the structure and endowments of the parties, debility, 
deformity, insanity or idiocy must inevitably be the 
portion of their offspring whether they are more 
nearly related than through their common ancestor, 
Noah, or not. 

If we adopt Mr. Walker's views, it is easy to see how 
parents of near affinities may produce offspring perfect 
and healthy, or the reverse. He holds, that to secure 



IN-AND-IN BREEDING. 1Q3 



satisfactory results from any union, there should be 
some inherent, constitutional, or fundamental differ- 
ence ; some such difference as we often see in the 
human family to be the ground of preference and at- 
tachment ; as men generally prefer women of a feminine 
rather than a masculine type. All desire, in a mate, 
properties and qualities not possessed by themselves. 
Now assuming as Mr. Walker holds, that organization 
is transmitted by halves, and that, in animals of the 
same variety, either parent may give either series of 
organs, we can see in the case of brother and sister 
that if one receives the locomotive system of the father 
and the nutritive system of the mother, and the other 
the locomotive system of the mother and the nutritive 
system of the father, they are essentially unlike, there 
is scarcely any similarity between them, although, as 
we say, of precisely the same blood ; and their progeny 
if coupled might show no deterioration ; whereas, if 
both have the same series of organs from the same 
parents, they would be essentially the same, a sort of 
quasi identity would exist between them, and they are 
utterly unfit to be mated. There might be impotency, 
or barrenness, or the progeny, if any, would be decid- 
edly inferior to the parents ; and the same applies, more 
or less, to other relatives descended from a common 
ancestry, but more distant than brother and sister. 

10 



104 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



Mr. Walker also holds that where the parents are not 
only of the same variety but of the same family in the 
narrowest sense, the female always gives the locomo- 
tive system and the father the nutritive ; in which case 
the progeny is necessarily inferior to the parents. 

A careful consideration of the subject brings us to 
the following conclusions, viz : 

That in general practice, with the grades and mixed 
animals common in the country, close breeding should be 
scrupulously avoided as highly detrimental. It is better 
always to avoid breeding from near affinities whenever 
stock-getters of the same breed and of equal merit can 
be obtained which are not related. Yet, where this is 
not possible, or where there is some desirable and 
clearly defined purpose in view, as the fixing and per- 
petuating of some valuable quality in a particular animal 
not common to the breed, and the breeder possesses 
the knowledge and skill needful to accomplish his pur- 
pose, and the animals are perfect in health and develop- 
ment, close breeding may be practiced with advantage. 



CROSSING. 105 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Crossing. 

The practice of crossing, like that of close breeding, 
has its strong and its weak side. Substantial argu- 
ments can be brought. both in its favor and against it. 
Judiciously practiced, it offers a means of procuring 
animals for the butcher, often superior to and more 
profitable than those of any pure breed. It is also ad- 
missible as the foundation of a systematic and well 
considered attempt to establish a new breed. Such 
attempts, however, as they necessarily involve consid- 
erable expense, and efforts continued during a long 
term of years, will be rarely made. But when crossing 
is practiced injudiciously and indiscriminately, and 
especially when so done for the purpose of procuring 
breeding animals, it cannot be too severely censured, 
and is scarcely less objectionable than careless in-and-in 
breeding. 

The following remarks, from the pen of W. C. Spoon- 
er, V. S., are introduced as sound and reliable, and as 
comprising nearly all which need be said on the subject 



106 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



of crossing breeds possessing distinctive characteris- 
tics : 

" Crossing is generally understood to refer to the 
alliance of animals of different breeds, such as between 
a thorough-bred and a half-bred among horses or a 
South Down and Leicester among sheep. Now the 
advantages or disadvantages of this system depend 
entirely on the object we have in view, whether merely 
to beget an animal for the butcher, or for the purpose 
of perpetuating the species. If the latter is the object, 
then crossing should be adopted gradually and with 
care, and by no means between distant or antagonistic 
qualities, as for example a thorough-bred and a cart- 
horse. The result of the latter connection is generally 
an ill-assorted and unfavorable animal, too heavy per- 
haps for one purpose, and too light for another. If we 
wish to instil more activity into the cart-horse breed, it 
is better to do so by means of some half-bred animal, 
whilst the latter can be improved by means of the three- 
parts-bred horse and this again by the thorough-bred. 
There is a remarkable tendency, in breeding, for both 
good qualities and bad to disappear for one or two gen- 
erations, and to reappear in the second and third ; thus 
an animal often resembles the grand dam more than the 
dam. This peculiarity is itself an objection to the prac- 
tice of crossing, as it tends to prevent uniformity and 
to encourage contrarieties ; and thus we find in many 
flocks and herds that the hopes of the breeders have 
been entirely baffled and a race of mongrels estab- 
lished. 



CROSSING. 107 



The first cross is generally successful — a tolerable 
degree of uniformity is produced, resembling in external 
conformation the sire, which is usually of a superior 
breed ; and thus the offspring are superior to the dams. 
These cross-bred animals are now paired amongst each 
other, and what is the consequence ? Uniformity at 
once disappears ; some of the offspring resemble the 
grandsire, and others the grandams, and some possess 
the disposition and constitution of the one and some of 
the other ; and consequently a race of mongrels is per- 
petuated. If, however, the cross is really a good and 
desirable one, then, by means of rigorous and continued 
selection, pursued for several generations, that is, by 
casting aside, as regards breeding purposes, every ani- 
mal that does not exhibit uniformity, or possess the 
qualifications we are desirous of perpetuating-, a valua- 
ble breed of animals may in the course of time be 
established. By this system many varieties of sheep 
have been so far improved as to become almost new 
breeds ; as for instance the New Oxford Downs which 
have frequently gained prizes at the great Agricultural 
Meetings as being the best long wooled sheep. 

To cross, however, merely for crossing sake — to do 
so without that care and vigilance which we have 
deemed so essential — is a practice which cannot bo too 
much condemned. It is in fact a national evil and a 
sin against society, that is, if carried beyond the first 
cross, or if the cross-bred animals are used for breeding. 
A useful breed of animals may thus be lost, and a gen- 
eration of mongrels established in their place, a result 

10* 



108 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



which has followed in numerous instances amongst 
every breed of animals. 

The principal use of crossing, however, is to raise 
animals for the butcher. In this respect it has not 
(with sheep) been adopted to the extent which it might 
to advantage. The male being generally an animal of 
a superior breed and of a vigorous nature, almost inva- 
riably stamps his external form, size and muscular 
development on the offspring, which thus bear a strong 
resemblance to him, whilst their internal nature derived 
from the dam, well adapts them to the locality, as well 
as to the treatment to which their dams have been 
accustomed. 

With regard to cattle, the system cannot be so advan- 
tageously pursued (except for the purpose of improving 
the size and qualities of the calf, where veal is the 
object) in as much as every required qualification for 
breeding purposes can be obtained by using animals of 
the pure breeds. But with sheep, where the peculiari- 
ties of the soil as regards the goodness of feed, and 
exposure to the severities of the weather, often prevent 
the introduction of an improved breed, the value of 
using a new and superior ram is often very considera- 
ble, and the weight of mutton is materially increased, 
without its quality being impaired, while earlier matu- 
rity is at the same time obtained. It involves, how- 
ever, more systematic attention than farmers usually 
like to bestow, for it is necessary to employ a different 
ram for each purpose ; that is, a native ram for a por- 
tion of the ewes to keep up the purity of the breed, and 



CROSSING. 109 



a foreign ram to raise the improved cross-bred animals 
for fatting either as lambs or sheep. This plan is 
adopted by many breeders of Leicester sheep, who thus 
employ South Down rams to improve the quality of 
the mutton. One inconvenience attending this plan, is 
the necessity of fatting the maiden ewes as well as the 
wethers ; they may however be disposed of as fat lambs, 
or the practice of spaying might be adopted, so as to 
increase the fatting disposition of the animal. Cross- 
ing, therefore, should be adopted with the greatest 
caution and skill where the object is to improve the breed 
of animals ; it should never be practiced carelessly or 
capriciously, but it may be advantageously pursued 
with a view to raising superior and profitable animals 
for the butcher. " 

In another paper on this subject, after presenting 
many interesting details regarding British breeds of 
sheep and the results of crossing, Mr. Spooner says : 

" We cannot do better, in concluding our paper, than 
gather up and arrange in a collected form, the various 
points of our subject, which appear to be of sufficient 
importance to be again presented to the attention of 
our readers. We think, therefore, we are justified in 
coming to the conclusions: 

1st. That there is a direct pecuniary advantage in 
judicious cross-breeding ; that increased size, disposi- 
tion to fatten, and early maturity, are thereby induced. 

2d. That while this may be caused for the most part, 
by the very fact of crossing, yet it is principally due to 



HO PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



the superior influence of the male over the size and 
external appearance of the offspring ; so that it is de- 
sirable, for the purpose of the butcher, that the male 
should be of a larger frame than the female, and should 
excel in those peculiarities we are desirous of repro- 
ducing. Let it be here however, repeated, as an ex- 
ceptional truth, that though as a rule the male parent 
influences mostly the size and external form, and the 
female parent the constitution, general health and vital 
powers, yet that the opposite result sometimes takes 
place. 

3d. Certain peculiarities may be imparted to a breed 
by a single cross. Thus, the ponies of the New Forest 
exhibit characteristics of blood, although it is many 
years since that a thorough-bred horse was turned into 
the forest for the purpose. So, likewise, we observe in 
the Hampshire sheep the Roman nose and large heads, 
which formed so strong a feature in their maternal 
ancestors, although successive crosses of the South 
Down were employed to change the character of the 
breed. * * * 

4th. Although in the crossing of sheep for the pur- 
pose of the butcher, it is generally advisable to use 
males of a larger breed, provided they possess a dispo- 
sition to fatten ; yet, in such cases, it is of importance 
that the pelvis of the female should be wide and capa- 
cious, so that no injury should arise in lambing, in con- 
sequence of the increased size of the heads of the lambs. 
The shape of the ram's head should be studied for the 
same reason. In crossing, however, for the purpose of 



CROSSING. HI 



establishing anew breed, the size of the male must give 
way to other more important considerations ; although 
it will still be desirable to use a large female of the 
breed which we seek to improve. Thus the South 
Downs have vastly improved the larger Hampshires, 
and the Leicester the huge Lincolns and the Cotswolds. 

5th. Although the benefits are most evident in the 
first cross, after which, from pairing the cross-bred 
animals, the defects of one breed or the other, or the 
incongruities of both, are perpetually breaking out — 
yet, unless the characteristics and conformation of the 
two breeds are altogether averse to each other, nature 
opposes no barrier to their successful admixture ; so 
that in the course of time, by the aid of selection and 
careful weeding, it is practicable to establish a new 
breed altogether. This, in fact, has been the history 
of our principal breeds. * * * 

We confess that we cannot entirely admit either of 
the antagonistic doctrines held by the rival advocates 
of crossing and pure breeding. The public have reason 
to be grateful to the exertions of either party ; and still 
more have they respectively reason to be grateful to 
each other. * * * * 

Let us conclude by repeating the advice that, when 
equal advantages can be attained by keeping a pure 
breed of sheep, such pure breed should unquestionably 
be preferred ; and that, although crossing for the pur- 
pose of the butcher may be practiced with impunity, 
and even with advantage, yet no one should do so for 
the purpose of establishing a new breed, unless he has 
clear and well defined views of the object he seeks to 



112 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



accomplish, and has duly studied the principles on 
which it can be carried out, and is determined to be- 
stow for the space of half a life-time his constant and 
..unremitting attention to the discovery and removal of 
defects. " 

The term crossing is sometimes used in a much more 
restricted sense, as in the remark of Mr. Boswell in his 
essay quoted on page 69 where he says, " When I praise 
the advantage of crossing I would have it clearly under- 
stood that it is only to bring together animals not nearly 
related but always of the same breed." It is evident 
that such crossing as this is wholly unobjectionable ; 
no one but an avowed and ultra advocate of close 
breeding could possibly find any fault with it. 

There is yet another style of crossing which when 
practicable, may, it is believed, be made a means to the 
highest degree of improvement attainable, and especial- 
ly in the breeding of horses. The word " breed " is oft- 
en used with varying signification. In order to be 
understood, let me premise that I use it here simply to 
designate a class of animals possessing a good degree 
of uniformity growing out of the fact of a common 
origin and of their having been reared under similar 
conditions. The method proposed is to unite animals 
possessing similarity of desirable characteristics , with 
difference of breed ; that is to say, difference of breed 
in the sense just specified. From unions based upon 



CROSSING. H3 



this principle, the selections being guided by a skillful 
judgment and a discriminating tact, we may expect 
progeny possessing not only a fitting and symmetrical 
development of the locomotive system, but also an 
amount and intensity of nervous energy and power un- 
attainable by any other method. 

Such was in all probability the origin of the cele- 
brated horse Justin Morgan ; an animal which not 
only did more to stamp excellence and impart value to 
the roadsters of New England than any other, but was 
the originator of the only distinct, indigenous breed of 
animals of which America can boast ; — a breed which 
as fast and durable road horses and for any light har- 
ness work, is not equalled by any other, any where. In 
the present state of our knowledge it is scarcely con- 
ceivable how an animal possessing the endowments of 
Justin Morgan could have originated in any other way 
than from such a parentage as above indicated. On the 
other hand it is very certain that contrast in character, 
as well as in breed, has occasioned much of the disap- 
pointment of which breeders have had occasion to com- 
plain. 

The principle here laid down is one of broad appli- 

' cation, and should never be lost sight of in attempts 

at improvement by crossing. Another point worthy 

special attention is that all crossing, to insure success- 



114 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



ful results, should be gentle rather than violent ; that is, 
never couple animals possessing marked dissimilarity, 
but endeavor to remedy faults and to effect improve- 
ment by gradual approaches. Harmony of structure 
and a proper balancing of desirable characteristics, "an 
equilibrium of good qualities, " as it has been happily 
expressed, can be secured only in this way. 

It may not be out of place here to say, that much 
of the talk about blood in animals, especially horses, is 
sheer nonsense. When a "blood horse" is spoken of, 
it means, so far as it means anything, that his pedigree 
can be traced to Arabian or Barbary origin, and so is 
possessed of the peculiar type of structure and great 
nervous energy which usually attaches to "thorough- 
bred" horses. When a bull, or cow, or sheep is said 
to be of " pure blood," it means simply that the animal 
is of some distinct variety — that it has been bred from 
an ancestry all of which were marked by the same 
peculiarities and characteristics. 

So long as the term "blood" is used to convey the 
idea of definite hereditary qualities it may not be objec- 
tionable. We frequently use expressions which are 
not strictly accurate, as when we speak of the sun's 
rising and setting, and so long as every body knows 
that we refer to apparent position and not to any mo- 
tion of the sun, no false ideas are conveyed. But to 



CROSSING. 115 



suppose that the hereditary qualities of an animal attach 
to the blood more than to any other fluid or to any 
of the tissues of the body, or that the blood of a high- 
bred horse is essentially different from that of another, 
is entirely erroneous. The qualities of an animal de- 
pend upon its organization and endowments, and the 
blood is only the vehicle by which these are nourished 
and sustained ; — moreover the blood varies in quality, 
composition and amount, according to the food eaten, 
the air breathed and the exercise taken. If one horse 
is better than another it is not because the fluid in his 
veins is of superior quality, but rather because his 
structure is more perfect mechanically, and because 
nervous energy is present in fitting amount and in- 
tensity. 

For illustration, take two horses — one so built and 
endowed that he can draw two tons or more, three miles 
in an hour ; the other so that he can trot a mile in three 
minutes or less. Let us suppose the blood coursing in 
the veins of each to be transferred to the other ; would 
the draft horse acquire speed thereby, or the trotter 
acquire power ? Just as much and no more as if you 
fed each for a month with the hay, oats and water in- 
tended for the other. 

It is well to attend to pedigree, for thus only can we 

know what are the hereditary qualities, but it is not 
11 



llg PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



well to lay too much stress upon " blood. " What 
matters it that my horse was sired by such a one or 
such a one, if he be himself defective ? In breeding* 
horses, structure is first, and endowment with nervous 
energy is next to be seen to, and then pedigree — after- 
wards that these be fittingly united, by proper selection 
for coupling, in order to secure the highest degree of 
probability which the nature of the case admits, that 
the offspring may prove a perfect machine and be suit- 
ably endowed with motive power. 

" The body of an animal is a piece of mechanism, the 
moving power of which is the vital principle, which 
like fire to the steam engine sets the whole in motion ; 
but whatever quantity of fire or vital energy may be 
applied, neither the animal machine nor the engine will 
work with regularity and effect, unless the individual 
parts of which the machine is composed are properly 
adjusted and fitted for the purposes for which they are 
intended ; or if it is found that the machine does move 
by the increase of moving power, still the motion is 
irregular and imperfect ; the bolts and joints are con- 
tinually giving way, there is a continued straining of 
the various parts, and the machine becomes worn out 
and useless in half the time it might have lasted if the 
proportions had been just and accurate. Such is the 
case with the animal machine. It is not enough that it 



CROSSING. 117 



is put in motion by the noblest spirit or that it is nour- 
ished by the highest blood ; every bone must have its 
just proportion ; every muscle or tendon its proper 
pulley ; every lever its proper length and fulcrum ; 
every joint its most accurate adjustment and proper 
lubrication ; all must have their relative- proportions 
and strength, before the motions of the machine can be 
accurate, vigorous and durable. In every machine 
modifications are required according as the purposes 
vary to which it is applied. The heavy dray horse is 
far from having the arrangement necessary for the pur- 
poses of the turf, while the thorough-bred is as ill 
adapted for the dray. Animals are therefore to be 
selected for the individual purposes for which they are 
intended, with the modifications of form proper for the 
different uses to which they are to be applied ; but for 
whatever purpose they may be intended, there are some 
points which are common to all, in the adjustment of 
the individual parts. If the bones want their due 
proportions, or are imperfectly placed— if the muscles 
or tendons want their proper levers — if the flexions of 
the joints be interrupted by the defectiveness of their 
mechanism, the animal must either be defective in mo- 
tion or strength ; the bones have irregular pressure, and 
if they do not break, become diseased ; if the muscles 
or tendons do not become sprained or ruptured, they 



118 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



are defective in their action ; if friction or inflammation 
does not take place in the joints, the motions are awk- 
ward and grotesque. As in every other machine, the 
beauty of the animate, whether in motion or at rest, de- 
pends upon the arrangement of the individual parts." 



BREEDING IN THE LINE. H9 



CHAPTER IX. 

Breeding in the Line. 

The preferable style of breeding for the great majori- 
ty of farmers to adopt, is neither to cross, nor to breed 
from close affinities, (except in rare instances and for 
some specific and clearly understood purpose,) but to 
breed in the line, that is, select the breed or race best 
adapted to fulfill the requirements demanded, whether 
it be for the dairy, for labor or for beef in cattle, or for 
such combination of these as can be had without too 
great sacrifice of the principal requisite ; whether for 
fine wool as a primary object and for meat as a sec- 
ondary one, or for mutton as a primary and wool for a 
secondary object, and then procure a pure bred male of 
the kind determined on, and breed him to the females 
of the herd or of the flock ; and if these be not such as 
are calculated to develop his qualities, endeavor by 
purchase or exchange to procure such as will. Let the 
progeny of these be bred to another pure bred male of 
the same breed, but as distantly related to the first as 
may be. Let this plan be steadily pursued, and al- 
though we cannot, without the intervention of well bred 
11* 



120 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



females, obtain stock purely of kind desired, yet in 
several generations, if proper care be given in the selec- 
tion of males, that each one be such as to retain and 
improve upon the points gained by his predecessor, the 
stock for most practical purposes will be as good as if 
thorough-bred. Were this plan generally adopted, and 
a system of letting or exchange of males established, 
the cost might be brought within the means of most 
persons, and the advantages which would accrue would 
be almost beyond belief. 

The writer on Cattle in the Library of Useful Knowl- 
edge well remarks : — " At the outset of his career, the 
farmer should have a clear and determined conception 
of the object that he wishes to accomplish. He should 
consider the nature of his farm ; the quality, abundance 
or deficiency of his pasturage, the character of the soil, 
the seasons of the year when he will have plenty or 
deficiency of food, the locality of his farm, the market 
to which he has access and the produce which can be 
disposed of with greatest profit, and these things will 
at once point to him the breed he should be solicitous 
to obtain. The man of wealth and patriotism may have 
more extensive views, and nobly look to the general 
improvement of cattle ; but the farmer, with his limited 
means and with the claims that press upon him, regards 
his cattle as a valuable portion of his own little prop- 



BREEDING IN THE LINE. 121 



erty, and on which every thing should appear to be in 
natural keeping, and be turned to the best advantage. 
The best beast for him is that which suits his farm the 
best, and with a view to this, he studies, or ought to 
study, the points and qualities of his own cattle, and 
those of others. The dairyman will regard the quantity 
of milk — the quality — its value for the production of 
butter and cheese — the time that the cow continues in 
milk — the character of the breed for quietness, or as 
being good nurses — the predisposition to garget or 
other disease, or dropping after calving — the natural 
tendency to turn every thing to nutriment — the ease 
with which she is fattened when given up as a milker, 
and the proportion of food requisite to keep her in full 
milk or to fatten her when dry. The grazier will con- 
sider the kind of beast which his land will bear — the 
kind of meat most in demand in his neighborhood — the 
early maturity — the quickness of fattening at any age — 
the quality of the meat — the parts on which the flesh 
and fat are principally laid — and more than all the 
hardihood and the adaptation to the climate and soil. 

In order to obtain these valuable properties the good 
farmer will make himself perfectly master of the char- 
acters and qualities of his own stock. He will trace 
the connection of certain good qualities and certain bad 
ones, with an almost invariable peculiarity of shape and 



122 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



structure ; and at length he will arrive at a clear con- 
ception, not so much of beauty of form (although that 
is a pleasing object to contemplate) as of that outline 
and proportion of parts with which utility is oftenest 
combined. Then carefully viewing his stock he will 
consider where they approach to, and how far they 
wander from, this utility of form ; and he will be anx- 
ious to preserve or to increase the one and to supply 
the deficiency of the other. He will endeavor to select 
from his own stock those animals that excel in the most 
valuable points, and particularly those which possess 
the greatest number of these points, and he will un- 
hesitatingly condemn every beast that manifests defi- 
ciency in any one important point. He will not, how- 
ever, too long confine himself to his own stock, unless 
it be a very numerous one. The breeding from close 
affinities has many advantages to a certain extent. It 
was the source whence sprung the cattle and sheep of 
Bake well and the superior cattle of Colling ; and to it 
must also be traced the speedy degeneracy, the abso- 
lute disappearance of the New Leicester cattle, and, in 
the hands of many agriculturists, the impairment of 
constitution and decreased value of the New Leicester 
sheep and of the Short-horns. He will therefore seek 
some change in his stock every second or third year, 
and that change is most conveniently effected by in- 



BREEDING IN THE LINE. 123 



troducing a new bull. This bull should be of the same 
breed, and pure, coming from a similar pasturage and 
climate, but possessing no relationship — or, at most, a 
very distant one — to the stock to which he is intro- 
duced. He should bring with him every good point 
which the breeder has labored to produce in his stock, 
and if possible, some improvement, and especially in the 
points where the old stock may have been somewhat 
deficient, and most certainly he should have no manifest 
defect of form ; and that most essential of all qualifica- 
tions, a hardy constitution, should not be wanting. 

There is one circumstance, however, which the 
breeder occasionally forgets, but which is of as much 
importance to the permanent value of his stock as any 
careful selection of animals can be — and that is, good 
keeping. It has been well said that 'all good stock 
must be both bred with attention and well fed. It is 
necessary that these two essentials in this species of 
improvement should always accompany each other ; 
for without good resources of keeping, it would be vain 
to attempt supporting a valuable stock/ This is true 
with regard to the original stock. It is yet more evi- 
dent when animals are absurdly brought from a better 
to a poorer soil. The original stock will deteriorate if 
neglected and half-starved, and the improved breed will 
lose ground even more rapidly, and to a far greater 
extent. " 



124 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



A very brief resume of the preceding remarks may 
be expressed as follows : 

The Law of Similarity teaches us to select animals 
for breeding which possess the desired forms and qual- 
ities in the greatest perfection and best combination. 

Eegard should be had not only to the more obvious 
characteristics, but also to such hereditary traits and 
tendencies as may be hidden from cursory observation 
and demand careful and thorough investigation. 

From the hereditary nature of all characteristics, 
whether good or bad, we learn the importance of hav- 
ing all desirable qualities and properties thoroughly 
inbred; or, in other words, so firmly fixed in each gen- 
eration, that the next is warrantably certain to present 
nothing worse, — that no ill results follow from breeding 
back towards some inferior ancestor, — that all undesir- 
able traits or points be, so far as possible, bred out. 

So important is this consideration, that in practice, it 
is decidedly preferable to employ a male of ordinary 
external appearance, provided his ancestry be all which 
is desired, rather than a grade or cross-bred animal, 
although the latter be greatly his superior in personal 
beauty. 

A knowledge of the Law of Divergence teaches us 
to avoid, for breeding purposes, such animals as exhibit 
variations unfavorable to the purpose in view ; and to 
endeavor to perpetuate every real improvement gained ; 



RESUME. 125 



also to secure as far as practicable, the conditions neces- 
sary to induce or to perpetuate any improvement, such 
as general treatment, food, climate, habit, &c. 

Where the parents do not possess the perfection 
desired, selections for coupling should be made with 
critical reference to correcting the faults or deficiencies 
of one by corresponding excellence in the other. 

But to correct defects too much must not be at- 
tempted at once. Pairing those very unlike, oftener 
results in loss than in gain. Mating a horse for speed 
with a draft mare, will more likely beget progeny good 
for neither, than for both. Avoid all extremes, and 
endeavor by moderate degrees to obtain the object 
desired. 

Crossing, between different breeds, for the purpose 
of obtaining animals for the shambles, may be advan- 
tageously practiced to considerable extent, but not for 
the production of breeding animals. As a general rule 
cross-bred males should not be employed for propa- 
gation, and cross-bred females should be served by 
thorough-bred males. 

In ordinary practice, breeding from near relationships 
is to be scrupulously o/voided; for certain purposes, un- 
der certain conditions and circumstances, and in the 
hands of a skillful breeder, it may be practiced with 
advantage, but not otherwise. 



126 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



In ii large majority of cases (other things being 
equal) Ave may expect in progeny the outward form 
and general structure of the sire, together with the 
interna] qualities, constitution and nutritive system of 
the dam ; each, however, modified by the other. 

Particular care should always be taken that the male 
by which the dam first becomes pregnant is the best 
which can be obtained ; also, that at the time of sexual 
congress both are in vigorous health. 

Breeding animals should not be allowed to become 
fat, but always kept in thrifty condition; and such as 
are intended for the butcher should never be fat but 
onbe. 

In deciding with what breeds to stock a farm, en- 
deavor \o select those best adapted to its surface, 
climate, and degree of fertility; also with reference to 
probable demand and proximity to markets. 

No expense incurred in procuring choice animals for 
propagation, or any amount oi' skill in breeding, can 
supersede, or compensate for, a lack of liberal feeding 
and good treatment. The better the stock, the better 
care they deserve. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS. 127 



CHAPTER X. 

Characteristics of Various Breeds. 

The inquiry is frequently made, what is the best 
breed of cattle, sheep, &c, for general use. In reply 
it may be said that no breed can by any possibility ful- 
fill all requirements in the best possible manner ; one 
is better for meat and early maturity, another for milk, 
another for wool, and so on. Because under certain 
circumstances it may be necessary or advisable for a 
man to serve as his own builder, tailor, tanner and 
blacksmith, it by no means follows that all which is 
required will be as well, or as easily done, as by a 
division of labor. So it is better for many reasons, and 
more profit can be made, by employing different breeds 
for different purposes, than by using one for all, and 
towards such profitable employment we should con- 
stantly aim. At the same time there is a large class 
of farmers so situated that they cannot keep distinct 
breeds, and yet wish to employ them for different uses, 
and whose requirements will best be met by a kind of 
cattle, which, without possessing remarkable excel- 
lence in any one direction, shall be sufficiently hardy, 
12 



128 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



the oxen proving docile and efficient laborers for a 
while, and then turn quickly into good beef upon such 
food as their farms will produce, the cows giving a fair 
quantity and quality of milk for the needs of the family 
and perhaps to furnish a little butter and cheese for 
market. 

Before proceeding to answer the inquiry more defi- 
nitely, it may be well to remark further, that among 
the facts of experience regarding cattle, sheep and 
horses, nothing is better established than that no breed 
can be transferred from the place where it originated, 
and to which it was suited, to another of unlike surface, 
climate and fertility, and retain equal adaptation to its 
new situation, nor can it continue to be what it was 
before. It must and will vary. The influence of cli- 
mate alone, aside from food and other agencies in 
causing variation, is so great that the utmost skill in 
breeding, and care in all other respects, cannot wholly 
control its modifying effects. 

It is also pretty well established that no breed 
brought in from abroad can be fully as good, other 
things being equal, as one indigenous to the locality, or 
what approximates the same thing, as one, which by 
being reared through repeated generations on the spot 
has become thoroughly acclimated ; so that the pre- 
sumption is strongly in favor of natives. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS. 129 



When we look about us however, we find, if we 
except the Morgan horses, nothing which deserves the 
name of indigenous breeds or races. The cattle and 
sheep known as "natives" are of mixed foreign origin, 
and have been bred with no care in selection, but 
crossed in every possible way. They possess no 
fixed hereditary traits, and although among them are 
many of very respectable qualities, and which possess 
desirable characteristics, they cannot be relied upon as 
breeders, to produce progeny of like excellence. Instead 
of constancy, there is continual variation, and frequent 
"breeding back," exhibiting the undesirable traits of 
inferior ancestors. That a breed might be established 
from them, by careful selection continued during re- 
peated generations, aided perhaps by judicious crossing 
with more recent importations, fully as good as any 
now existing, is not to be doubted. Very probably, a 
breed for dairy purposes might be thus created which 
should excel any now existing in Europe, for some of 
our so called native cows, carelessly as they have been 
bred, are not surpassed by any of foreign origin upon 
which great care has been expended. To accomplish 
this is an object worthy the ambition of those who 
possess the skill, enthusiasm, ample means and indom- 
itable perseverance requisite to success. But except 
the single attempt of Col. Jaques, of the Ten Hills 



130 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



Farm, to establish the Creampot breed,* of which, as 
little has been heard since his death, it is fair to pre- 
sume that it has dropped into the level of common 
grade cattle, no systematic and continued effort has 
come to our knowledge. Consequently such as may 
be deemed absolutely the best is a thing of the future ; 
they do not yet exist — and there is no probability that 
the desideratum will soon be attained. We Yankees 
are an impatient people ; we dislike to wait, for any 
thing, or to invest where five, ten, twenty or fifty years 
maybe expected to elapse before satisfactory dividends 
may be safely anticipated. 

Still, if all would begin to-day, to use what skill and 
judgment they have, or can acquire, in breeding only 
from the best of such as they have, coupling with refer- 
ence to their peculiarities, and consigning to the butcher 
as fast as possible every inferior animal, and if, in addi- 
tion, they would do what is equally necessary, namely, 
improve their general treatment as much as lies in their 
power, there would result an immediate, a marked and 
a steadily progressive improvement in stock. To the 
acclimation or Americanization already acquired, would 
be added increased symmetry of form and greater value 
in many other respects. This is within the power of 

* This was commenced by a cross of Coelebs, a Short-horn bull, 
upon a common cow of remarkable excellence. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS. 131 



every man, and whatever else he may be obliged to 
leave undone, for want of ability, none should be content 
to fall short of this. Those who have the command of 
ample means will of course desire that improvement 
should be as rapid as possible. They will endeavor at 
once to procure well bred animals, or in other words, 
such as already possess the desired qualities so thor- 
oughly inwrought into their organization that they can 
rely with a good degree of confidence on their impart- 
ing them to their progeny. 

It may be well to allude here to a distinction between 
breeds and races. By breeds, are understood such vari- 
eties as were originally produced by a cross or mixture, 
like the Leicester sheep for example, and subsequently 
established by selecting for breeding purposes only the 
best specimens and rejecting all others. In process of 
time deviations become less frequent and greater uni- 
formity is secured ; but there remains a tendency, 
greater or less in proportion to the time which elapses 
and the skill employed in selection, to resolve itself 
into its original elements, to breed back toward one or 
other of the kinds of which it was at first composed. 

By races, are understood such varieties as were 
moulded to their peculiar type by natural causes, with 
no interference of man, no intermixture of other varie- 
ties, and have continued substantially the same for a 
12* 



132 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



period beyond which the memory and knowledge of 
man does not reach. Such are the North Devon cattle, 
and it is fortunate that attention was drawn to the 
merits of this variety before facilities for inter-communi- 
cation had so greatly increased as of late, and while 
yet the race in some districts remained pure. All that 
breeders have done to better it, is by selections and 
rejections from within itself; and so, much improve- 
ment has been effected without any adulteration. Con- 
sequently we may anticipate that so long as no cross- 
ing takes place, there will be little variation. 

Among the established breeds of cattle the Improved 
Short-horns are the most fashionable, and the most 
widely diffused ; and where the fertility of the soil, and 
the climate, are such as to allow the development of 
their peculiar excellencies, they occupy the highest 
rank as a meat-producing breed. Their beef is hardly 
equal in quality to that of the Devons, Herefords or 
Scots, the fat and lean being not so well mixed together 
and the flesh of coarser grain. But they possess a re- 
markable tendency to lay on fat and flesh, attaining 
greater size and weight, and coming earlier to maturity 
than any other breed. These properties, together with 
their symmetry and stately beauty, make them very 
popular in those counties of England, where they orig- 



CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS. 133 



inated, and wherever else they have been carried, pro- 
vided their surroundings are such as to meet their 
wants. In the rich pastures of Kentucky and in some 
other parts of the west, they seem as much at home as 
on the banks of the Tees, and are highly and deservedly 
esteemed. The Short-horns have also been widely and 
successfully used to cross with most other breeds, and 
with inferior mixed cattle, as they are found to impress 
strongly upon them their own characteristics. 

Without entering into the question of its original 
composition, or of its antiquity, regarding both of which 
much doubt exists, it may suffice here to say, that about 
a hundred years ago, Charles Colling and others entered 
zealously and successfully into an attempt to improve 
them by careful breeding, in whose hands they soon 
acquired a wide spread fame and brought enormous 
prices ; and the sums realized for choice specimens of 
this breed from that time to the present, have been 
greater than for those of any other. Much of their 
early notoriety was due to the exhibition of an ox reared 
by Charles Colling from a common cow by his famous 
bull " Favorite," and known as the " Durham" ox, and 
also as the " Ketton" ox, (both which names have since 
then been more or less applied to the breed, but which 
are now mostly superceded by the original and more 
appropriate one of Short-horn,) which was shown in 



134 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



most parts of England and Scotland from 1801 to 1807, 
and whose live weight was nearly four thousand pounds, 
and which was at one time valued for purposes of ex- 
hibition as high as $10,000. 

The old Teeswater cattle were remarkably deep 
milkers, and although it does not appear that good 
grazing points necessarily conflict with excellence for 
the dairy, the fact is, that as improvement in feeding 
qualities was gained, the production of milk in most 
cases fell off; and although some families at the present 
time embrace many excellent milkers, the majority of 
them have deteriorated in this respect about in pro- 
portion to the improvement effected as meat-producing 
animals. The earlier Short-horns introduced into this 
country were from the very best milking families, and 
their descendants have usually proved valuable for 
dairy purposes — but many of those more recently im- 
ported are unlike them in this respect. By cross- 
ing the males upon the common cows of the country 
the progeny inherited increased size and symmetry of 
form, more quiet dispositions, greater aptitude to feed 
and earlier maturity. Notwithstanding the prejudices 
with which they were at first received, they gradually 
rose in estimation, more of them have been introduced 
than of any other breed, and probably more of the im- 
provement which has taken place in cattle for the last 



CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS. 135 



forty years is due to them than to any other ; yet as a 
pure breed they are not adapted to New England ivants. 
Their size is beyond the ability of most farms to sup- 
port profitably : crossed npon such as through neglect 
in breeding, scanty fare and exposure were bad feeders, 
too small in size, and too slow in growth, they effected 
great improvement in all these respects ; and this 
improvement demanded and encouraged the bestowal 
of more food and better treatment, and so they pros- 
pered; — inheriting their constitutions chiefly from the 
hardy and acclimated dams, the grades were by no 
means so delicate and sensitive as the pure bred animals 
to the cold and changes of a climate very unlike that of 
the mild and fertile region where they originated. 

The lethargic temperament characteristic of the 
Short-horn and which in the grades results in the 
greater quietness and docility so highly valued, neces- 
sarily unfits them for active work ; pure bred animals 
being altogether too sluggish for profitable labor. 
This temperament is inseparably connected with their 
aptitude to fatten and early maturity, and these both 
demand abundant and nutritious food beyond the ability 
of many to supply and at the same time are incompati- 
ble with the activity of habit and hard service demanded 
of the working ox. 



136 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



The North Devons are deemed to be of longer stand- 
ing than any other of the distinct breeds of England, 
and they have been esteemed for their good qualities 
for several centuries. Mr. George Turner, a noted 
breeder of Devons, describes them as follows : — " Their 
color is generally a bright red, but varying a little either 
darker or more yellow ; they have seldom any white 
except about the udder of the cow or belly of the bull, 
and this is but little seen. They have long yellowish 
horns, beautifully and gracefully curved, noses or muz- 
zles white, with expanded nostrils, eyes full and promi- 
nent, but calm, ears of moderate size and yellowish 
inside, necks rather long, with but little dewlap, and 
the head well set on, shoulders oblique with small 
points or marrow bones, legs small and straight and 
feet in proportion. The chest is of moderate width, 
and the ribs round and well expanded, except in some 
instances, where too great attention has been paid to 
the hind quarters at the expense of the fore, and which 
has caused a falling off, or flatness, behind the shoulders. 
The loins are first rate, wide, long and full of flesh, hips 
round and of moderate width ; rumps level and well 
filled at the bed ; tail full near the rump and tapering 
much at the top. The thighs of the cows are occasion- 
ally light, but the bull and ox are full of muscle, with a 
deep and rich flank. On the whole there is scarcely 



CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS. 137 



any breed of cattle so rich and mellow in its touch, so 
silky and fine in its hair, and altogether so handsome in 
its appearance, as the North Devon, added to which 
they have a greater proportion of weight in the most 
valuable joints and less in the coarse, than any other 
breed, and also consume less food in its production. 

As milkers they are about the same as most other 
breeds ; — the general average of a dairy of cows being 
about one pound of butter per day from each cow dur- 
ing the summer months, although in some instances the 
very best bred cows give a great deal more. 

As working oxen they greatly surpass any other 
breed. They are perfectly docile and excellent walk- 
ers, are generally worked until five or six years old, 
and then fattened at less expense than most other 
oxen/ 7 

The author of the report on the live stock shown at 
the exhibition of the Eoyal Agricultural Society at 
Warwick in 1859 (Mr. Robert Smith) says : 

"Although little has been written on it, the improve- 
ment of the Devon has not been neglected ; on the 
contrary, its breeding has been studied like a science, 
and carried into execution with the most sedulous 
attention and dexterity for upwards of two hundred 
years. The object of the Devon breeder has been to 
lessen those parts of the animal frame which are least 



138 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



useful to man, such as the bone and offal, and at the 
same time to increase such other parts (flesh and fat) as 
furnish man with food. These ends have been accom- 
plished by a judicious selection of individual animals 
possessing the wished for form and qualities in the 
highest . degree, which being perpetuated in their pro- 
geny in various proportions, and the selection being 
continued from the most approved specimens among 
these, enabled the late Mr. Francis Quartly at length to 
fully establish the breed with the desired properties. 
This result is substantially confirmed by the statistics 
contained in Davy's ' Devon Herd-Book/ We have 
been curious enough to examine these pedigrees, and 
find that nine-tenths of the present herds of these truly 
beautiful animals are directly descended (especially in 
their early parentage) from the old Quartly stock. 
Later improvements have been engrafted on these by 
the Messrs. Quartly of the present day. The example 
of various opulent breeders and farmers in all parts of 
the country has tended to spread this improvement, by 
which the North Devon cattle have become more gen- 
eral and fashionable. The leading characteristics of 
the North Devon breed are such as qualify them for 
every hardship. They are cast in a peculiar mold, with 
a degree of elegance in their movement which is not to 
be excelled. Their hardihood, resulting from compact- 



CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS. 139 



ness of frame and lightness of offal, enables them (when 
wanted) to perform the operations of the farm with a 
lively step and great endurance. For the production 
of animal food they are not to be surpassed, and in 
conjunction with the Highland Scot of similar preten- 
sion, they are the first to receive the attention of the 
London West-end butcher. In the show-yard, again, 
the form of the Devon and its rich quality of flesh serve 
as the leading guide to all decisions. He has a promi- 
nent eye, with a placid face, small nose and elegantly 
turned horns, which have an upward tendency (and 
cast outward at the end) as if to put the last finish upon 
his symmetrical form and carriage. These animals are 
beautifully covered with silken coats of a medium red 
color. The shoulder points, sides, and foreflanks are 
well covered with rich meat, which, when blended with 
their peculiar property of producing meat of first-rate 
quality along their tops, makes them what they are — 
* models of perfection/ Of course, we here speak of the 
best-bred animals. Some object to the North Devon, 
and class him as a small animal, with the remark, 'He 
is too small for the grazier. 7 In saying this it should 
ever be remembered that the Devon has its particular 
mission to perform, viz., that of converting the produce 

of cold and hilly pastures into meat, which could not 
13 



140 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



be done to advantage by large-framed animals, however 
good their parentage/ 7 

The Devons have been less extensively, and more 
recently, introduced than the Short-horn, but the 
experience of those who have fairly tried them fully 
sustains the opinions given above, and they prom- 
ise to become a favorite and prevailing breed. The 
usual objection made to them by those who have 
been accustomed to consider improvement in cattle to 
be necessarily connected with enlargement of size, is, 
that they are too small. But their size instead of being 
a valid objection, is believed to be a recommendation, 
the Devons being as large as the fertility of New Eng- 
land soils generally are capable of feeding fully and 
profitably. 

Their qualities as working oxen are unrivalled, no 
other breed so uniformly furnishing such active, docile, 
strong and hardy workers as the Devons, and their 
uniformity is such as to render it very easy to match 
them. Without possessing so early maturity as the 
Short-horns, they fatten readily and easily at from four 
to six years old, and from their compact build and well 
balanced proportions usually weigh more than one ac- 
customed to common cattle would anticipate. 

The Devons are not generally deep milkers but the 
milk is richer than that of most other breeds, and some 



CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS. 141 



families, where proper care and attention have been 
given to this quality in breeding, yield largely. It is, 
however, as a breed for general use, combining beef, 
labor and milk, in fair proportion, that the Devons will 
generally give best satisfaction, as they are hardy 
enough to suit the climate, and cheaply furnish efficient 
labor and valuable meat. 

Farmers, whose ideas upon stock have been formed 
wholly from their experience with Short-horns and their 
grades, have often been surprised at witnessing the 
facility with which Devons sustain themselves upon 
scanty pasturage, and not a few when first critically 
examining well bred specimens, sympathize with the 
feeling which prompted the remark made to the reporter 
of the great English Exhibition at Chester, after exam- 
ining with him fine specimens of the Devons — "I am 
delighted ; I find we Short-horn men have yet much to 
learn of the true formation of animals ; their beautiful 
contour and extreme quality of flesh surprise me." 

The Herefords are an ancient and well established 
breed, and are probably entitled to be called a race. 
Little is known with certainty of their origin beyond 
the fact that for many generations they can be traced 
as the peculiar breed of the county whence they derive 
their name. Youatt says that "Mr. Culley, although 



142 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



an excellent judge of cattle, formed a very erroneous 
opinion of the Herefords when he pronounced them to 
be nothing but a mixture of the Welsh with a bastard 
race of Long Horns. They are evidently an aboriginal 
breed, and descended from the same stock as the 
Devon. If it were not for the white face and some- 
what larger head and thicker neck it would not at all 
times be easy to distinguish between a heavy Devon 
and a light Hereford." 

Mr. Gisborne says " The Hereford brings good evi- 
dence that he is the British representative of a widely 
diffused and ancient race. The most uniform drove of 
oxen which we ever saw, consisted of five hundred from 
the Ukraine. They had white faces, upward horns and 
tawny bodies. Placed in Hereford, Leicester or North- 
ampton markets, they would have puzzled the graziers 
as to the land of their nativity/, but no one would have 
hesitated to pronounce that they were rough Here- 
fords." 

Mr. Eowlandson, in his prize report on the farming 
of Herefordshire, says " The Herefords, or as they have 
sometimes been termed, the middle horned cattle have 
ever been esteemed a most valuable breed, and when 
housed from the inclemency of the weather, probably 
put on more meat and fat in proportion to the food 
consumed, than any other variety. They are not so 



CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS. 143 



hardy as the North Devon cattle, to which they bear a 

general resemblance ; they however are larger than the 

Devons, especially the males. On the other hand, 

the Herefords are larger boned, to compensate for 

which defect, may be cast in the opposite scale the 

fact that the flesh of the Hereford ox surpasses all 

other breeds for that beautiful marbled appearance 

caused by the intermixture of fat and lean which is so 

much prized by the epicure. The Hereford is usually 

deeper in the chine, and the shoulders are larger and 

coarser than the Devon. They are worse milkers than 

the Devon, or than, perhaps, any other breed, for the 

Hereford grazier has neglected the female and paid the 

whole of his attention to the male." It is said that 

formerly they were of a brown or reddish brown color, 

and some had grey or mottled faces. Mr. P. Tully 

states that the white face originated accidentally on a 

farm belonging to one of his ancestors. "That about 

the middle of the last century the cow-man came to 

the house announcing as a remarkable fact that the 

favorite cow had produced a white faced bull calf. 

This had never been known to have occurred before, 

and, as a curiosity it was agreed that the animal 

should be kept and reared as a future sire. Such, in 

a few words, is the origin of a fact that has since 

prevailed through the country, for the progeny of this 
13* 



144 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



very bull became celebrated for white faces. " Of late 
years there has been much uniformity of color ; the 
face, throat, the under portion of the body, the inside 
and lower part of the legs and the tip of the tail being 
white, and the other parts of the body a rich deep red. 

Compared with the Short-horn the Hereford is nearly 
as large, of rather less early maturity, but a better 
animal for grazing, and hardier. The competition 
between these breeds in England is very close and 
warm, and taking many facts together it would seem 
probable that the Hereford is in some instances rather 
more profitable, and the Short-horn generally more 
fashionable. Challenges have been repeatedly offered 
by Hereford men to Shorthorn men to feed an equal 
number of each in order to test their respective merits, 
and have usually been declined, perhaps because if the 
decision was against them, the loss might be serious, 
and if they won, the gain would be little or nothing, 
the Short-horns being more popular already and com- 
manding higher prices. 

As working oxen the Herefords are preferable to the 
Short-horns, being more hardy and active. Some com- 
plaint is made of their being "breachy." Their large 
frames demand food, and if enough be furnished they 
are content, but if not, they have intelligence and ac- 
tivity enough to help themselves if food be within 



CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS. 145 



reach. Their chief merit is as large oxen, for heavy 
labor, and for beef. Some grade cows from good milk- 
ing dams give a fair quantity of milk, and what they 
give is always rich, but wherever they have been intro- 
duced, milking qualities generally deteriorate very 
much. 

The Ayrshires are a breed especially valuable for 
dairy purposes. Eegarding its origin, Mr. Aiton who 
felt much interest in the subject, and whose opportuni- 
ties for knowing the facts were second to those of no 
other, writing about forty years since, says, " The 
dairy breed of cows in the county of Ayr now so much 
and so deservedly esteemed, is not, in their present 
form, an ancient or indigenous race, but a breed formed 
during the memory of living individuals and which have 
been gradually improving for more than fifty years past, 
till now they are brought to a degree of perfection that 
has never been surpassed as dairy stock in any part of 
Britain, or probably in the world. They have increased 
to double their former size, and they yield about four 
and some of them five times as much milk as formerly. 
By greater attention to breeding and feeding, they have 
been changed from an ill-shaped, puny, mongrel race of 
cattle to a fixed and specific breed of excellent color and 
quality. So gradually and imperceptibly were im- 
provements in the breed and condition of the cattle 



146 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



introduced, that although I lived in Ayrshire from 1160 
to 1185, and have traversed it every year since, I have 
difficulty in stating from my own observation or what I 
have learned from others, either the precise period when 
improvement began, or the exact means by which a 
change so important was wrought. " He then relates 
several instances in which between 1760 and HTO some 
larger cows were brought in of the English or Dutch 
breeds, and of their effect he says, "I am disposed to 
believe that although they rendered the red color with 
white patches fashionable in Ayr, they could not have 
had much effect in changing the breed into their pres- 
ent highly improved condition," and thinks it mainly 
due to careful selections and better treatment. 

Mr. Aiton says "the chief qualities of a dairy cow 
are that she gives a copious draught of milk, that she 
fattens readily and turns out well in the shambles. In 
all these respects combined the Ayrshire breed excels 
all others in Scotland, and is probably superior to any 
in Britain. They certainly yield more milk than any 
other breed in Europe. No other breed fatten faster, 
and none cut up better in the shambles, and the fat is 
as well mixed with the lean flesh, or marbled, as thie 
butchers say, as any other. They always turn out 
better than the most skillful grazier or butcher who 
are strangers to the breed could expect on handling 



CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS. 147 



them. They are tame, quiet, and feed at ease without 
roaming, breaking over fences, or goring each other. 
They are very hardy and active, and are not injured 
but rather improved by lying out all night during sum- 
mer and autumn. " 

Since Mr. Aiton wrote, even greater care and atten- 
tion has been paid to this breed than before, and it is 
now well entitled to rank as the first dairy breed in the 
world, quantity and quality of yield and the amount of 
food required being all considered. Compared with 
the Jersey, its only rival as a dairy breed, the milk of 
the Ayrshire is much more abundant, and richer in 
caseine, but not so rich in oily matter, although better 
in this respect than the average of cows. 

Experience of their qualities in this country shows 
that if they do not here fully sustain their reputation in 
Scotland, they come near to it, as near as the difference 
in our drier climate allows, giving more good milk upon 
a given amount of food than any other. Upon ordi- 
narily fertile pastures they yield largely and prove very 
hardy and docile. The oxen too are good workers, 
fatten well, and yield juicy, fine flavored meat. 

The Jersey race, formerly known as the Aldernay, 
is almost exclusively employed for dairy purposes, and 
may not be expected to give satisfaction for other uses. 
Their milk is richer than that of any other cows, and 



148 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



the butter made from it possesses a superior flavor 
and a deep rich color, and consequently commands an 
extraordinary price in all markets where good butter 
is appreciated. 

The Jersey cattle are of Norman origin, and until 
within about twenty or thirty years were far more un- 
inviting in appearance than now, great improvement 
having been effected in their symmetry and general 
appearance by means of careful selections in breeding, 
and this without loss of milking properties. The cows 
are generally very docile and gentle, but the males 
when past two or three years of age often become 
vicious and unmanageable. It is said that the cows 
fatten readily when dry, and make good beef. 

There is no branch of cattle husbandry which prom- 
ises better returns than the breeding and rearing of 
milch cows. Here and there are to be found some 
good enough. In the vicinity of large towns and cities 
are many which having been culled from many miles 
around, on account of dairy properties, are considera- 
bly above the average, but taking the cows of the 
country together they do not compare favorably with 
the oxen. Farmers generally take more pride in their 
oxen, and strive to have as good or better than any of 
their neighbors, while if a cow will give milk enough 
to rear a large steer calf and a little besides, it is often 
deemed satisfactory. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS. 149 



Sheep. — The sheep first introduced into this country- 
were of English origin, and generally not very dissimi- 
lar to the ancient unimproved Down sheep. Probably 
some were these — as many of the first cattle were the 
Devons of that day. More than fifty years since the 
Merinos were introduced and extensively bred. At 
various periods other choice breeds have been intro- 
duced. The number kept has fluctuated very much, 
depending mainly on the market value of wool. When 
it was high many kept sheep, and when it fell the flocks 
were neglected. 

The true mission of the sheep in fulfilling the three- 
fold purpose of furnishing food, and raiment, and the 
means of fertilization, seems not yet to be generally 
apprehended. One of the most serious defects in the 
husbandry of New England at the present time, is the 
prevalent neglect of sheep. Ten times the present 
number might be easily fed, and they would give in 
meat, wool and progeny, more direct profit than any 
other domestic animal, and at the same time the food 
they consume would do more towards fertilizing the 
farms than an equal amount consumed by any other 
animal. 

It is notorious that our pastures have seriously dete- 
riorated in fertility and become overrun with worthless 
weeds and bushes to the exclusion of nutritious grass'es. 



150 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



Sheep husbandry has declined. If these two facts as 
uniformly stand to each other in the relation of cause 
and effect, as they certainly do in many instances, the 
remedy is suggested at once — replace the animal with 
"golden feet." After devoting the best land to culti- 
vation and the poorest to wood, we have thousands 
upon thousands of acres evidently intended by the 
Creator for sheep walks, because better adapted for 
this purpose than for any other. An indication of 
Providence so unmistakable as this should not be un- 
heeded. 

The Merinos are perhaps the most ancient race of 
sheep extant. They originated in Spain, and were for 
ages bred there alone. In 1765 they were introduced 
into Saxony, where they were bred with care and with 
special reference to increasing the fineness of the wool, 
little regard being paid to other considerations. They 
were also taken to France and to Silesia, and from all 
these sources importations have been made into the 
United States. The Spanish Merino has proved the 
most successful, and by skill and care in breeding has 
been greatly improved, insomuch that intelligent judges 
are of opinion that some of the Vermont flocks are 
superior to the best in Europe, both in form, hardiness, 
quantity of fleece and staple. They are too well known 
to require a detailed description here. Suffice it to say 



CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS. 151 



that they are below rather than above medium size, 
possessing a good constitution, and are thrifty, and 
cheaply kept. Their chief merit is as fine wooled sheep, 
and as such they excel all others. As mutton sheep 
they are constitutionally and anatomically deficient, 
being of late maturity and great longevity, (a recom- 
mendation as fine wooled sheep,) having too flat sides, 
too narrow chests, too little meat in the best parts, and 
too great a percentage of offal when slaughtered. 
Their mutton, however, is of fair quality when mature 
and well fatted. As nurses they are inferior to many 
other breeds. Many careful, extensive and protracted 
attempts have been made to produce a breed combining 
the fleece of the Merino with the carcass of the Leices- 
ter or other long wooled sheep. They have all signal- 
ly failed. The forms, characteristics and qualities of 
breeds so unlike seem to be incompatible with one 
another. A cross of the Merino buck and Leicester 
ewe gives progeny which is of more rapid growth than 
the Merino alone, and is hardier than the Leicester. 
It is a good cross for the butchers' use, but not to be 
perpetuated. Improvement in the Merino should be 
sought by skillful selection and pairing the parents in 
view of their relative fitness to one another. 

The Leicester, or more properly the Xew Leicester, 

is the breed which Bakewell established, and is repeat- 
14 



152 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



edly referred to in the preceding pages. It has quite 
superseded the old breed of this name. His aim was to 
produce sheep which would give the greatest amount 
of meat in the shortest time on a given amount of food, 
and for early maturity and disposition to fatten, it still 
ranks among the highest. The objections to the breed 
for New England are, that they are not hardy enough 
for the climate, and require richer pastures and more 
abundant food than most farmers can supply. Its chief 
value in such locations is for crossing upon ordinary 
sheep for lambs and mutton. 

The Cotswolds derive their name from a low range 
of hills in Gloucestershire. These have long been noted 
for the numbers and excellence of the sheep there main- 
tained, and are r;o called from Cote, a sheepfold, and 
Would, a naked hill. An old writer says : — " In these 
woulds they feed in great numbers flocks of sheep, long 
necked and square of bulk and bone, by reason (as is 
commonly thought) of the weally and hilly situation of 
their pastures, whose wool, being most fine and soft, is 
held in passing great account amongst all nations." 
Since his time, however, great changes have passed 
both upon the sheep and the district they inhabit. 
The improved Cotswolds are among the largest British 
breeds, long wooled, prolific, good nurses, and of early 
maturity. More robust, and less liable to disease than 



CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS. 153 



the Leicesters, of fine symmetry and carrying great 
weight and light offal, they are among the most popular 
of large mutton sheep. 

The South Dowx is an ancient British breed, taking 
its name from a chalky range of hills in Sussex and 
other counties in England about sixty miles in length, 
known as the South Downs, by the side of which is a 
tract of land of ordinary fertility and well calculated 
for sheep walks, and on which probably more than a 
million of this breed of sheep are pastured. The flock 
tended by the "Shepherd of Salisbury Plain," of whose 
earnest piety and simple faith Hannah More has told 
us in her widely circulated tract, were South Downs. 
Formerly these sheep possessed few of the attractions 
they now present. About the year 1782 Mr. John 
Ellman of Glynde turned his attention to their improve- 
ment. Unlike his cotemporary Bakewell, he did not 
attempt to make a new breed by crossing, but by atten- 
tion to the principles of breeding, by skillful selections 
for coupling and continued perseverance for fifty years, 
he obtained what he sought — health, soundness of con- 
stitution, symmetry of form, early maturity, and facility 
of fattening, and thus brought his flock to a high state 
of perfection. Before he began we are told that the 
South Downs were of "small size and ill shape, long 
and thin in the neck, high on the shoulders, low behind, 



154 PRINCIPLES, OF BREEDING. 



high on the loins, down on the rumps, the tail set on 
very low, sharp on the back, the ribs flat," &c., &c, 
and were not mature enough to fatten until three years 
old or past. Of his flock in 1194, Arthur Young* says : 
" Mr. Ellman's flock of sheep, I must observe in this 
place, is unquestionably the first in the country ; there 
is nothing that can be compared with it ; the wool is 
the finest and the carcass the best proportioned ; al- 
though I saw several noble flocks afterwards which I 
examined with a great degree of attention ; some few 
had very fine wool, which might be equal to his, but 
then the carcass was ill-shaped, and many had a good 
carcass with coarse wool; but this incomparable farmer 
had eminently united both these circumstances in his 
flock at Glynde. I affirm this with the greater degree 
of certainty, since the eye of prejudice has been at work 
in this country to disparage and call in question the 
quality of his flock, merely because he has raised the 
merit of it by unremitted attention above the rest of 
the neighboring farmers, and it now stands unrivalled." 
This, it will be noticed, was only twelve years after he 
began his improvements. To Mr. Ellman's credit be it 
said that he exhibited none of the selfishness which 
characterized Mr. BakewelPs career, but was always 

* Annals of Agriculture, Vol. 11, p. 224. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS. 155 



ready to impart information to those desirous to learn, 
and labored zealously to encourage general improve- 
ment. That he was pecuniarily successful is evident 
from the continued rise in the price of his sheep. The 
Duke of Richmond, Mr. Jonas Webb, Mr. Grantham, 
and other cotemporaries and successors of Mr. Ellman 
have carried successfully forward the work so well be- 
gun by him. The Improved South Downs now rank 
first among British breeds in hardiness, constitution, 
early maturity, symmetry, and quality of mutton and 
of wool combined. The meat usually brings one to two 
cents per pound more than that of most other breeds 
in Smithfield market. It is of fine flavor, juicy, and 
well marbled. The South Downs are of medium size, 
(although Mr. Webb has in some cases attained a live 
weight in breeding rams of 250 pounds, and a dressed 
weight of 200 pounds in fattened wethers,) hardy, pro- 
lific, and easily kept, suceeding on short pastures, al- 
though they pay well for liberal feeding. 

The Oxford Downs may be named as an instance of 
successful cross-breeding. They originated in a cross 
between the Improved Cotswolds and the Hampshire 
Downs.* Having been perpetuated now for more than 

* The Hampshires are somewhat larger than the South Downs, 
and quite as hardy — the fleece a trifle shorter. The Oxford Downs 
are not to be confounded with the New Oxfordshires. 



156 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



twenty years, they possess so good a degree of uniform- 
ity as to be entitled to the designation of a distinct breed, 
and have lately been formally recognized as such in Eng- 
land. They were first introduced into Massachusetts 
by R. S. Fay, Esq., of Lynn, and into Maine by Mr. 
Sears, both in 1854. They were first bred with a view 
to unite increased size with the superiority of flesh and 
patience of short keep which characterize the Downs. 
It is understood that they inherit from the Cotswold a 
carcass exceeding in weight that of the Downs from a 
fifth to a quarter ; a fleece somewhat coarser but heav- 
ier than that of the Downs by one-third to one-half; 
and from the latter they inherit rotundity of form and 
fullness of muscle in the more valuable parts, together 
with the brown face and leg. 

In reply to a note of inquiry addressed to Mr. Pay, 
he says : " I selected the Oxford Downs with some hes- 
itation as between them and the Shropshire Downs, 
after a careful examination of all the various breeds of 
sheep in England. My attention was called to them 
by observing that they took, (1854,) without any dis- 
tinct name, all the prizes as mutton sheep at Birming- 
ham and elsewhere, where they were admitted to com- 
pete. They were only known under the name of half 
or cross bred sheep, with name of the breeder. Mr. 
Rives of Virginia and myself went into Oxfordshire to 



CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS. 157 



look at them, and so little were they known as a class, 
that Philip Pusey, Esq., President of the Royal Agri- 
cultural Society, knew nothing about them, although 
one of his largest tenants, Mr. Druce, had long bred 
them. It is only within two years that they were for- 
mally recognized at a meeting, I believe, of the Smith- 
field club, and they then received the name which I 
gave them years ago, of Oxford Downs. By this name 
they are now known in England. I can only add that 
an experience of six years confirms all that is claimed 
for them. Fifty-two ewes produced seventy-three 
healthy lambs from February 13th to March 15th, this 
year. The same ewes sheared an average of more than 
seven pounds to the fleece, unwashed wool, which sold 
for 34 cents per pound. A good ram should weigh as 
a shearling from 180 to 250 pounds ; a good ewe from 
125 to 160 pounds. They fatten rapidly, and thrive on 
rough pasture. My flock, now the older and poorer 
ones have been disposed of, will average, I have no 
doubt, eight pounds of wool to the fleece. The mutton 
is exceedingly fine and can be turned into cash in 18 
months from birth. " 



158 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



The kind of sheep most desirable, on the whole, in any 
given case, depends chiefly on the surface, character 
and fertility of the farm and its location. At too great 
a distance from a good meat market to allow of a profit- 
able sale of the carcass, the Spanish Merino is doubt- 
less to be preferred, but if nearer, the English breeds 
will pay better. Mutton can be grown cheaper than 
any other meat. It is daily becoming better apprecia- 
ted, and strange as it may seem, good mutton brings a 
higher price in our best markets than the same quality 
does in England. Its substitution in a large measure 
for pork would contribute materially to the health of 
the community. 

Winter fattening of sheep may often be made very 
profitable and deserves greater attention, especially 
where manure is an object — (and where is it not ?) In 
England it is considered good policy to fatten sheep if 
the increase of weight will pay for the oil cake or grain 
consumed ; the manure being deemed a fair equivalent 
for the other food, that is, as much straw and turnips 
as they will eat. Lean sheep there usually command 
as high a price per pound in the fall as fatted ones in 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 159 

the spring, while here the latter usually bear a much 
higher price, which gives the feeder a great advantage. 
The difference may be best illustrated by a simple cal- 
culation. Suppose a wether of a good mutton breed 
weighing 80 pounds in the fall to cost 6 cents per pound 
($4.80) and to require 20 pounds of hay per week, or 
its equivalent in other food, and to gain a pound and a 
half each week, the gain in weight in four months 
would be about 25 pounds, which at 6 cents per pound 
would be $1.50 or less than $10 per ton for the hay 
consumed ; but if the same sheep could be bought in 
fall for 3 cents per pound and sold in spring for 6 cents, 
the gain would amount to $3.90 or upwards of $20 per 
ton for the hay — the manure being the same in either 
case. 

For fattening it is well to purchase animals as large 
and thrifty and in as good condition as can be done at 
fair prices ; and to feed liberally so as to secure the 
most rapid increase which can be had without waste of 
food. 

The fattening of sheep by the aid of oil cake oi\ grain 
purchased for the purpose, may often be made a cheaper 
and altogether preferable mode of obtaining manure 
than by the purchase of artificial fertilizers, as guano, 
superphosphate of lime, &c. It is practiced exten- 
sively and advantageously abroad and deserves at least 
a fair trial here. 



160 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



Horses. — It does not seem necessary in this connec- 
tion to give descriptions of the various breeds of horses, 
as comparatively few of our animals can fairly be said 
to be of any pure or distinct varieties. Names are 
common enough, but the great majority of the horses 
among us are so mixed in their descent from the breeds 
which have been introduced at various times from 
abroad, as to be almost as near of kin to one as to 
another. Success in breeding will depend far more 
upon attention to selection in regard to structure and 
endowments than to names. Although it may be 
somewhat beyond the scope of an attempt to treat 
merely of the principles of breeding to offer remarks 
regarding its practice, a few brief hints may be par- 
doned ; and first, let far more care be taken in respect 
of breeding mares. Let none be bred from which are 
too old, or of feeble constitution, or the subjects of 
hereditary disease. No greater mistake can be made 
than to suppose that a mare fit for nothing else, is wor- 
thy to be bred from. If fit for this, she is good for much 
else — gentle, courageous, of good action, durable and 
good looking ; outward form is perhaps of less import- 
ance than in the male, but serious defect in this greatly 
lessens her value. She should be roomy, that is the pelvis 
should be such that she can w^ell develop and easily 
carry and deliver the foal. Youatt says, "it may, 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 161 



perhaps, be justly affirmed that there is more difficulty 
in selecting a good mare to breed from, than a good 
horse, because she should possess somewhat opposite 
qualities. Her carcass should be long to give room 
for the growth of the foetus, yet with this there should 
be compactness of form and shortness* of leg." 

The next point is the selection of a stallion. It is 
easy enough to say that he should be compactly built, 
"having as much goodness and strength as possible 
condensed in a little space," and rather smaller rela- 
tively than the mare, that he should be of approved 
descent and possess the forms, properties and charac- 
teristics which are desired to be perpetuated. It is 
not very difficult to specify with tolerable accuracy 
what forms are best adapted for certain purposes, as an 
oblique shoulder, and depth, rather than width, of chest 
are indispensable for trotting ; that in a draft horse this 
obliquity of shoulder is not wanted, one more upright 
being preferable, and so forth ; but after all, a main 
point to secure success is relative adaptation of the 
parents to each other, and here written directions are 
necessarily insufficient and cannot supply the place of 
skill and judgment to be obtained only by careful study 
and practical experience ; nor is it always easy, even if 



* Mr. Youatt here probably refers to length below, rather than 
above, the knee and hock. 



162 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



fully aware of the necessary requirements, to find them 
in the best combination in the horses nearest at hand. 
A stallion may be all which can be desired for one dam 
and yet be very unsuitable for another. In this aspect 
we can perceive how valuable results may accrue from 
such establishments as now exist in various sections of 
the country, where not a single stallion only is kept, 
but many, and where no pains nor expense are spared 
to secure the presence of superior specimens of the 
most approved breeds, and choice strains of blood in 
various combinations ; so that the necessary require- 
ments in a sire are no sooner fairly apprehended than 
they are fully met. On this point therefore, my sug- 
gestion is, that this relative adaptation of the parents 
to one another be made the subject of patient and care- 
ful study ; and a word of caution is offered lest in the 
decisions made, too great importance be attached to 
speed alone. That speed is an element of value is not 
doubted, nor do I intimate that he who breeds horses 
to sell, may not aim to adapt his wares to his market 
as much as the man who breeds neat cattle and sheep, 
or the man who manufactures furniture to sell. But I 
do say that speed may be, and often has been, sought at 
too dear a rate, and that bottom, courage, docility and 
action are equally elements of money value and equally 
worthy of being sought for in progeny. Nor is it un- 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 163 



likely that an attempt to breed for these last named 
qualities, with a proper reference to speed, would result 
in the production of as many fast horses as we now get, 
and in addition to this, a much higher average degree 
of merit in the whole number reared. 

Another suggestion may not be out of place. Hith- 
erto (if we except fast trotting) there has been little 
attention paid to .breeding for special purposes, as for 
draft horses, carriage horses, saddle horses, etc., and the 
majority of people at the present time undoubtedly 
prefer horses of all work. This is well enough so 
long as it is a fact that the wants of the masses are 
thus best met, but it is equally true that as population 
increases in density and as division of labor is carried 
farther, it will be good policy to allow the horse to 
share in this division of labor, and to breed with refer- 
ence to different uses ; just as it is good policy for one 
man to prepare himself for one department of business 
and another for another. The same principle holds in 
either case. 

Sufficient attention has never been paid to the break- 
ing and training of horses. Not one in a thousand 
receives a proper education. It ought to be such as to 
bring him under perfect control, with his powers fully 
developed, his virtues strengthened and his vices erad- 
icated. What usually passes for breaking is but a dis- 



164 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



tant approximation to this. The methods recently 
promulgated by Rarey and Baucher are now attracting 
attention, and deservedly too, not merely for the imme- 
diate profit resulting from increased value in the sub- 
jects, but in view of the ultimate results which may be 
anticipated ; for, as we have seen when treating of the 
law of similarity, acquired habits may in time become 
so inbred as to be transmissible by hereditary descent. 



i 















+J. 









»•> 



. > 












A 















"bo* 






























' -b 



* 




































- 






01" 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



002 830 715 9 






H 



;.'hti 



1 



■ 



■ 



I 



■ 

■mU-\ 



■ 



